Methods and apparatus for identifying and facilitating a social interaction structure over a data packet network

ABSTRACT

A software suite for managing the publishing and consumption of information and payload data across one or more transport protocols supported by a data-packet-network includes a posting application for publishing the information and payload data, and a consuming application for accessing and consuming the information and payload data. In a preferred embodiment the posting application enables posting of information that is consumable separately from the payload data wherein the information richly describes the payload data including provision of instructions for sampling the payload data before consuming the payload data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS

The present invention is a continuation in part to a U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/765,338 filed on Jan. 26, 2004 entitled “Methodsand System for Creating and Managing Identity Oriented NetworkedCommunication”. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/765,338 wasdisclosed as part of the document disclosure program and given documentdisclosure number 534495. Both documents are included herein at least byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of network-based communicationincluding digital transactions and file transfers and pertainsparticularly to methods and apparatus for identifying and facilitating asocial interaction structure based on user and contact identityinformation and digital markup techniques.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the advent and development of the Internet network, including theWorld Wide Web and other connected sub-networks; the network interactionexperience has been continually enriched over the years and muchdevelopment continues. In a large part, network users, both veteran andnovice have a basic human commonality in that they all share three basicdesires that materialize into behavioral traits when engaging innetwork-enhanced interaction. These behavioral traits are the desire forcommunication with others, the desire to collect and/or acquire digitalcontent, and the desire to collaborate with others to help solve someproblem or to resolve an issue. As behavioral traits, these basic needscan be expanded into many sub-categories. Communication includesinteraction over channels such as Instant Messaging (IM), email, postingboards, chat, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), analog voice, etc.Collection includes collecting art, knowledge, music, photographs,software, news, and so on. Collaboration includes group discussions,task fulfillment, and any other collective efforts to solve a problem orperform a function. In basic form communication, collection, andcollaboration are very tightly intertwined as basic desires.

Software providers have long recognized the need to fulfill these basicdesires by providing the capabilities in a single interface and haveprovided many well-known communication applications that provide accessto casual and business communication as well as collaboration and filetransfer capabilities. Programs like Net-Meeting™ and ICQ™, among manyothers attempt to aggregate these capabilities into a single accessibleinterface some times integrating separate communications applicationsfor single point launching.

Users generally belong to a variety of communities and socialorganizations that may or may not be tightly structured or organized.For example, a user may have family and friends in their on-line addressbook along with work associates from the job (two communities thatshould be separated). The same user may belong to a church group and agolf group, or some other sports group. The same user may also volunteerat a wildlife rehabilitation center. However loosely formed andorganized, these separate groups often have a central Web presence, forexample, a Web site, posting board, or the like. Likewise many of thegroup members or associates also have individual on-line capabilitieslike ISP accounts, email addresses and so on.

A user associated with more than one group logically has varyingpersonas or faces that he or she presents to each group. Moreover, theuser may logically be willing to share only varying degrees and depth ofinformation with these separate groups largely restricted to the subjectmatter(s) appropriate to the group. For example, the user's familymembers and close friends would not share the same type and depth ofinformation as the user's work associates, or the user's wildlife rehabassociates. It may be desired by a user, and in fact is logical toconclude that in association with these different groups that groupboundaries should be respected with reference to communication channelsand formal as well as informal information sharing.

A drawback to virtually all of the available communication channelswhether they are separate channels or integrated into a communicationapplication, is that a user may have to provide a basic permanentidentity and profile for these programs to work successfully. Forexample, an email account generally requires a permanent email addressthat the user may have to maintain unless the account is to beabandoned. Using more than one email address generally requires morethan one email account for a given user. Likewise instant messageapplications may require a standard email account and identity.

A software application is known to the inventor and referenced in thecross-reference section of this specification as “Methods and System forCreating and Managing Identity Oriented Networked Communication”. Thesoftware enables services for managing routing of communiqués across oneor more communication channels supported by a data-packet-network. Thesoftware includes one or more workspaces for segregating communicationactivity; one or more unique user identities assigned per workspace; andone or more contact identities assigned to and approved to communicatewith a workspace administrator of the one or more workspaces using theassigned user identities. In a preferred embodiment the applicationenforces a policy implicitly defined by the existing architecture of theworkspaces and associated user and contact identities. The softwareenables contact identity and user identity pairing in management of therouting of a communiqué to a particular workspace. The identities areapplicable to the supported communication channel or channels used inthe communication.

One problem inherent to social interaction over a network is that it isoften very strictly defined, highly organized, and largely proprietaryin nature meaning that those collaborators who are part of a hostednetworking group are typically bound to use certain applications andprotocols as part of some proprietary framework for communicationprovided by a service host over other applications and protocols thatmight also be available.

Many socially active and interactive groups are, by definition, looseknit and therefore not highly structured, organized, or otherwisedefined to an extent that would warrant such inflexible over-networkcollaboration provided by a typical collaboration host or intermediary.One exception to this general rule is Usenet described in some detailwith reference to the U.S. patent application identified in thecross-reference section of this specification. The ubiquitous andloosely governed structure of Usenet provides a suitable spawning bedfor forming loose knit, often temporary groups for social interactionthat is inclusive of communication, collaboration, and digitalcollection.

User groups or Web communities who engage in group discussion,collaboration and digital collection activities using news groupservices, mailing lists, and other like facilities fall in at theopposite end of the scale from highly defined and structured proprietaryservices. For example, Usenet supports group interaction but does notprovide any mechanism for the group to evolve into a more structuredsocial group with a common purpose or common set of goals.

Both proprietary networking services and unstructured group interactionfacilities tend to be more document-centric than identity-centric indifferent ways. For example, the proprietary framework of a service hostmay limit a VIP network of users, for example, to using selectedprotocols, applications, and security regimens according to defined andexplicit rules and methods. Unstructured interaction services may lackthe structure of security and rules of engagement in addition to anabsence of variety in the types of applications and protocols supported.

Therefore, what is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that wouldenable social interaction over a network in a way that solves theproblems stated above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A software suite is provided for managing the publishing and consumptionof information and payload data across one or more transport protocolssupported by a data-packet-network. The software suite includes

a posting application for publishing the information and payload data,and a consuming application for accessing and consuming the informationand payload data. In a preferred embodiment, the posting applicationenables posting of information that is consumable separately from thepayload data wherein the information richly describes the payload dataincluding provision of instructions for sampling the payload data beforeconsuming the payload data.

In a preferred embodiment, the data-packet-network is the Internetnetwork. In one embodiment, the posting application is used to post abinary series comprising the payload data and the transport protocol isnetwork news transport protocol (NNTP).

In a preferred embodiment, the consuming application is a networknewsreader adapted with a collector component for finding and collectingthe posted payload data using the NNTP protocol. In this embodiment, theinformation is a binary series index message describing the contents ofthe payload data and further providing instructions for sampling thedata. Also in this embodiment, the payload data is one of or acombination of pictures, movies, sound files, applications, or textdocuments.

In one embodiment, the consumer application is divided into two separatecomponents, that of a newsreader for consuming text and that of acollector for consuming multi-media. In one embodiment, the binaryseries index message is an XML-based message. In one embodiment, thetransport control protocols include but are not limited to network newstransport protocol, file transport protocol, rich site summary protocol,universal discovery description and integration protocol, lightweightdirectory access protocol, multipurpose Internet mail protocol, postoffice protocol, simple message access protocol, Internet mail accessprotocol, and hypertext transport protocol.

In a preferred embodiment, the information includes XML-baseddescription of one or more of a host server identity, a poster identity,a newsgroup identity, and one or more contact identities. In a variationto this preferred embodiment, the software suite is integrated with anidentity oriented management firewall. In one embodiment, thedata-packet-network is part of a peer-to-peer network hosted by aservice provider.

In a preferred embodiment, payload description includes but is notlimited to message count, message size, media type, file size, filecount, play duration, picture resolution, file name, file date ofcreation, number of accesses, indication of sample files, indication ofposter commentary, indication of commerce-related data, reference toclassification parts and indication of file priority for sampling.

In one embodiment, the collector component manages files stored locallyon the station of the consumer using the information as a base for fileorganization and presentation. In this embodiment, the information isreused for reposting a consumed series. Also in one embodiment, thesoftware suite is provided as a browser plug-in. In one aspect of theinvention, the information and payload data published is consumable onlyby consumers approved for consumption.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a language modelfor defining social interaction conducted over a data-packet-networkbetween two or more network clients is provided. The language modelincludes, in a preferred aspect, a first portion for defining a group ofinteractors engaging in the social interaction, a second portiondepending from the first portion, the second portion for definingcommunications services allowed for the group interactions, a thirdportion depending from the second portion, the third portion fordefining media types allowed during group interactions, a fourth portiondepending from the third portion the fourth portion for defining mediaand message payload content transferred between interactors during thesocial interaction, and a fifth portion depending from the secondportion, the fifth portion for identifying each of the interactors. In apreferred embodiment, the language model is expressed on the network asone or a set of markup language documents portions of which may bepropagated over the network transparently between stations of theinteractors, the documents packaged and embedded in an applicationservice layer of the network using relevant and existing transportprotocols supported on that network.

In a preferred embodiment, the data-packet-network is the Internetnetwork. In one embodiment, the portions are integrated and expressed asa single markup language document using an XML based language. In oneembodiment, the first and second portions further define one or moresubject matters lending to group purpose and rules of engagement betweengroup interactors. Also in one embodiment, rules of engagement includerequired security protocol.

In one embodiment, the language model is used to define a socialinteraction group and its activities practiced over network newstransport protocol using a news server as a base of interaction. Inanother embodiment, the language model is used to define a socialinteraction group and its activities practiced over file transportprotocol using a file transfer server as a base of interaction. In stillanother embodiment the language model is used to define a socialinteraction group and its activities practiced over a peer-to-peernetwork using a peer-to-peer server as a base of interaction. In yetanother embodiment, the language model is used to define a socialinteraction group and its activities practiced over one or more messagetransport protocols using a message server as a base of interaction.

In the just-mentioned embodiment, the language model of claim 26 whereinthe message transport protocols include but are not limited to postoffice protocol, simple message transport protocol, multipurposeInternet mail extension protocol, Internet mail access protocol, Instantmessage protocol, file transfer protocol, and presence protocol.

In one embodiment, the first and second portions further identify anddefine an inbox that is shared among the interactors. In this sameembodiment or in another embodiment, the fifth portion further includesidentity recognition capability through syncing of white lists andincorporating new identities provided by interactors.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for publishing a series of media files for consumption over adata-packet-network using a mark-up language generator. The methodincludes the steps of (a) initiating a publishing task from anapplication adapted for publishing the media files of type; (b)identifying the media files for publishing; (c) confirming attributesfor publishing the series; (d) optionally, adding user commentaryassociating said commentary to relevant files or to the series; and (e)invoking the markup language generator to produce the files or messagespublished.

In a preferred application, the data-packet-network is the Internetnetwork. In one aspect, in step (a), the application is a posteroperable over the Internet using network news transport protocol. Inthis embodiment the media files are one or a combination of pictures,movie segments, sound files, text documents, or applications. In apreferred aspect, in step (b), identification involves dragging themedia files into a workspace window, or simply mapping the location ofeach file included.

In a variation to the just-mentioned aspect, in step (b), the publishingis a repost of a series and the series BSI is used to identify the mediafiles for publishing. In a preferred aspect, in step (c), attributesinclude those that are automatically detected and those that may bemanually entered. In this aspect, in step (c), attributes include atleast file attributes, publishing destination attributes, authoridentity attributes, commerce related attributes, and publishing styleattributes. In one aspect, attributes further include intended consumeridentity attributes.

In one aspect, in step (d), user commentary may be added and associatedto the series and to individual series files. In a variation to thisaspect, keystroke method may be used to add pre-defined commentary. Inone aspect, in step (e), invocation of the markup language generatorcauses all of the information to be expressed in the form of a number ofXML documents that may be used to perform the posting action. In thisaspect, in step (e), the XML documents contain all of the informationand instruction for posting the series including a binary series indexexpressed as a single XML document that described the series.

In a preferred aspect, in step (e), the markup language generatorautomatically loads the markup language into a task manager anddispatcher that finishes the posting with no other user input or actionrequired. In this aspect, in step (e), invocation of the markup languagegenerator completes the posting operation.

In one embodiment with respect to the language model described furtherabove, the social interaction is conducted between interactors and amachine wherein the machine is a voting machine. In another embodimentwith respect to the language model, part of the social interactionincludes synchronizing a shared contact directory among the interactors,the synchronizing process governed by trust-metrics.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a communications network forpracticing identity and zone-managed communication and digitalcollection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating software applications and systemcomponents of an Agent software suite according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is an entity relationship diagram illustrating structure of azone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an architectural view of a user interacting with Web-basedzone creation services according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating interaction paths between an IOMclient and network peers and services according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is an architectural overview illustrating an example ofreplication of messages according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating architecture of a personal zoneaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a hosted email account firewallapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram 900 illustrating components and function of anidentity oriented firewall application 119 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating firewall alert featuresaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an architectural overview of a Web-based service adapted forthird-party zone hosting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating software layers and componentsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating portal interface functionalityaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a logical overview of a network architecture wherein socialinteraction services are provided according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating various components of socialinteraction services and relationships between them according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating various components and layers ofthe client software of FIG. 14 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating integration of socialinteraction services and protocols into an existing network modelaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18A is an exemplary screenshot illustrating a binary postinginterface according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18B is an exemplary screenshot illustrating a posting configurationinterface according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18C is an exemplary screenshot illustrating contents of a postingaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18D is an exemplary screenshot illustrating identity configurationin conjunction with a posting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 18E is an exemplary screenshot illustrating style mechanics ofposting according to an embodiment the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a process of task loadingassociated with binary posting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a process of dispatching aposting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is an exemplary screenshot illustrating a reader/collectorinterface according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is simple architectural overview illustrating a clientpracticing binary digital collection according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 23 is a relationship diagram illustrating relationships betweensocial interaction markup language components exemplified in a postingexample according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a process flow chart 2400 illustrating a process for postinga binary series according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a softwaresuite is provided for managing network communication and digitalcollection activities according to user and contact identities. Themethods and apparatus of the present invention are described in enablingdetail below.

FIG. 1 is an architectural overview of a communications network 100 forpracticing identity and zone-managed communication and digitalcollection according to an embodiment of the present invention.Communications network 100 encompasses a data-packet-network (DPN) 101and accessing users a-h.

DPN 101 is the well-known Internet network in a preferred example, whichincludes any sub-networks that might be connected thereto such as anEthernet network, an Intranet network, or any other compatible datanetworks. The inventor chooses the Internet as a preferred examplebecause of a characteristic of unlimited public accessibility.

Users a-h are illustrated in this example as an array of desktopcomputer icons representing computer stations capable of Internet accessand interaction. One with skill in the art will appreciate that thereare a variety of computer station types known as well as a variety ofInternet-access methods known. For exemplary purposes users a-h areshown connected to Internet network 101 through apublic-switched-telephony-network (PSTN) represented herein by telephonyconnectivity network (114,121), which provides access through anillustrated telephony switch 113 to an Internet service provider (ISP)102. Telephony switch 113 is a local switch (LS) local to particularuser group a-h.

In this example, the Internet connection method is simple dial-upservices through an ISP as is common in the art. Other Internet accessconventions such as cable/modem, digital subscriber line (DSL),integrated services digital network (ISDN), and more recently developedwireless conventions can also be used.

ISP 102 connects to an Internet pipeline or backbone 104, whichrepresents all of the lines, connection points, and equipment that makeup the Internet network as a whole. Therefore, taken into account theknown ranges of the Internet and PSTN network, there are no geographiclimits to the practice of the present invention.

A gateway 122 is illustrated in this example and represents a gatewaybetween Internet 101 and PSTN (114, 121) such as the well-known Bellcore standard of SS7, for bi-directional transformation of telephonysignaling and data-packet-streams for communication over the respectivenetworks. Gateway 122 may also be a wireless application gateway intonetwork 101 without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Gateway 122 is connected to backbone 104 by an Internet line124.

Internet 101 represented in breadth by backbone 104 has a plurality ofelectronic data servers illustrated therein and adapted individually toprovide some form of communication services or other network services. ALightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server is illustrated asconnected to backbone 104 and adapted to provide access to usersanalogous to users a-h to directory services. LDAP is a softwareprotocol that enables any user to locate any other user, organization,resources file, or network connected device. In this example, LDAPserver 106 may play a roll in providing access to loose social groupswhose members use identity-oriented routing of messaging and zonemanagement for communication and collaboration with each other andfringe associates that may not have client software used by groupmembers as will be described in more detail later in this specification.

An instant message server 107 is illustrated within Internet 101 andconnected to backbone 104 for communication. IM messaging is anasynchronous form of communication comprising routed messages. A goal ofthe present invention is to enable routing of IM messages according toidentities and zones. IM server 107 represents any of the widelyavailable and known instant message services like AOL™, Microsoft™,ICQ™, and others including those that leverage presence protocols.

A network news transport protocol (NNTP) server 108 is illustratedwithin Internet 101 and connected to backbone 104 for access. NNTP isthe predominant protocol used by software clients like Agent and serversfor managing notes and files posted to Usenet groups. NNTP protocolreplaced the original Usenet protocol Unix-to-Unix-Copy Protocol (UUCP).NNTP servers manage the global network of collected Usenet newsgroupsand include servers that provide Internet access. An NNTP client may beincluded as part of a Web browser or, in the case of this example, aseparate client program called a newsreader described further below. AnNNTP sever is accessed for the purpose of browsing messages, postingmessages, and for downloading messages and files. As described furtherabove with reference to the background section of this specification,NNTP servers also can be dedicated to storing binaries (music, movies,pictures, games, etc.), available for downloading and allowing Usenetpatrons to post binaries to the server.

A goal of the present invention is to provide routing of Usenet messagesand binaries according to identities and zones as described furtherabove. As described further above with reference to the backgroundsection of this specification, the inventor is aware of and hasdeveloped the newsreader application known as Agent. The presentinvention relates to novel enhancements to the prior-art version of theapplication, the enhancements enabling identity oriented routing andmessage management according to created zones.

A voice server 109 is illustrated within Internet 101 and connected tobackbone 104 for access. Voice server 109 is analogous to a Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) server capable of storing and forwarding voicemessages or of conducting real-time voice session between two or moreparties connected to the network including connection from a remoteanalog network via telephony gateway. Although methods of the presentinvention deal largely with asynchronous communication, one goal of thepresent invention is to enable network-hosted interaction services thatuse identities of sender and receiver in the concept of createdidentities that are zone specific to route live voice interactionssourced from either network 101 or PSTN 114,121. Voice server 109 mayalso be assumed to represent an analog counterpart held within the PSTNnetwork in terms of functionality.

An email server 110 is illustrated within Internet 101 and connected tobackbone 104 for access. Server 110 represents a typical email serverhaving a port for post office protocol (POP), a port for simple messagetransport protocol (SMTP), and a port for Internet mail access protocol(IMAP), which is a Web-based service that allows users access to emailfrom any browser interface. A goal of the present invention is to enablerouting of emails according to created identities and zones managed by aunique firewall application described further below.

A peer-to-peer server (P2P) 111 is illustrated within network 101 andconnected to backbone 104 for access. P2P server 111 is analogous to anysource or relay server of digital music, movie, or picture files thatcan be downloaded there from by users. Server 111 can be a proxy serverthat accesses individual desktop computers to retrieve content from a“shared folder” adapted for the purpose, as is the general practice ofwell-known music download services.

A really simple syndicate (RSS) server 112 is illustrated withinInternet 101 and connected to backbone 104 for network access. RSS is aformat for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites,including major news sites like Wired™, news-oriented community siteslike Slashdot™, and personal Weblogs. An RSS server can handle otherformats besides news formats. Any topic that can be broken down intodiscrete items can be syndicated using RSS, for example, the history ofa book. When a subject matter is presented in RSS format it is deliveredas an RSS feed to an RSS-enhanced reader, which can periodically checkor monitor the feed for any changes and react to the changes in anappropriate way. An RSS enhanced reader can be thought of as a newsaggregator that alerts the user to any new items in the RSS feeds. It isa goal of the present invention to enable identity oriented routing ofRSS feeds using created identities and managed zones.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the plurality ofservers illustrated in this example represent differing types and formsof communication and interaction including “digital collection”interaction. One goal of the present invention is to enable fastsampling of digital postings of binaries and downloaded collectionsthereof in a more efficient and identity oriented manner, includingrouting downloads of such materials into appropriate user zones based onidentity and content-related information.

Users a-h may be assumed to be operating an Agent software suite 120shown in display on user computer c in this example. It may be assumedthat all users a-h have SW 120 resident on their workstations or atleast a portion of suite 120 operational and locally executable. SW 120is expanded in illustration from display on station c to reveal severalapplication components. These are a reader application 115, a postingapplication 116, a collector application 117, a zone manager application118, and a identity/zone firewall application 119.

As a software suite (120), applications 115-119 may be provided havingvarious levels of integration and standalone functionality withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Theinventor illustrates the functional portions or applications of suite120 separately for the purposes of describing separate functions andcapabilities and in actual practice some of applications 115-119 may beprovided as standalone applications that can be installed separatelyfrom each other the whole of which when installed work together as afunctional and integrated application suite.

Reader application 115 encompasses functionality for accessing andbrowsing news servers like NNTP server 108 for sampling and subscribingto news groups and message boards. In this example, reader 115 isenhanced (RSS plug-in) for navigation to an RSS server like RSS server112 for the purpose of sampling and subscribing to news feeds and otherinformational feeds. Reader 115 may be assumed to contain all of theformer functionality of the Agent newsreader described with reference tothe background section and which is available to the inventor. Reader115, for example, allows a user to read and download messages and tomonitor message threads of certain users that have posted to a server.Reader 115 can also monitor news feeds and alert a user when new feedcontent is available.

Reader 115 may be assumed to include a graphical user interface (GUI notillustrated) that includes capabilities of navigation to differentonline news servers and other typical browser functions. Reader 115, inpreferred embodiment, has interactive GUI linking capability to and is,in various capacities, integrated with posting application 116,collector application 117, zone manager 118, and firewall application119. In one embodiment, a single main GUI is provided that interlinksaccess to the functions provided by all of applications 115-119. In thisembodiment a partial suite 120 not including all of applications 115-119would have GUI icons that represent the missing components, however suchicons might be “grayed out” or otherwise caused to indicate that one ormore applications of suite 120 is not installed. In a preferredembodiment application 119 is provided as a default component of suite120 because it provides the basis for identity-oriented routing ofmessages and interactions.

In another embodiment, separate GUIs are provided as standalone GUIs foreach functional application wherein appropriate GUI links are providedfor navigation from one interface (functional application control) toanother. There are many possible design possibilities.

Posting application 116 encompasses the capability to post (upload)messages and binaries to NNTP servers, FTP servers, and posting boards.Poster 116 has an interface, not illustrated, for creation and upload ofcreated postings, which include text-based postings and binary postings.Poster 116 is RSS-enhanced as was described with reference to readerapplication 115. In this way a posting user can create news andinformational feeds upload them to RSS server 112, for example, forother users to download.

Collector application 117 enables digital sampling and collection ofbinaries from NNTP sever 108 and in some configured cases from P2P(server 111). Collector application 117 enables identity-orientedtracking and sampling of posted materials. Collector 117 is provided asa dedicated application, in a preferred embodiment, however it may alsobe integrated with reader 115 and poster 116 without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention. In one embodiment collector117 may be integrated with other applications as well such as a musicjukebox application, media server applications, content managementapplications, and streaming content applications.

Zone manager 118 is a utility for enabling a user to create specialidentity-oriented (IO) workspace zones (not illustrated) that may haveone or more associated identities. By default, a certain generic set ofIO zones might be provided with suite 120, however a user may create asmany IO zones as is required to comfortably manage messaging accordingto identity. The policies of IO zones are enforced by firewallapplication 119. The concepts of IO zones will be detailed later in thisspecification.

Firewall application 119 is a utility for enforcing IO-routing ofmessaging and interaction according to policy related to active zones.Firewall 119 provides a single security and message routing solutionthat can be used to handle incoming and outgoing email, IM interactions,and interaction associated with other media channels including voicechannels using multiple identities and of various accounts.

In practice of the present invention, suite 120 enhances prior-artfunctionality associated with standalone newsreaders, messaging clients,and digital collecting utilities by first providing a single or seriesof linked interfaces through which all of the activities can beaccomplished and secondly by providing new and novel capabilities ofmanaging interactions and work-related tasks according to one or acombination of user and sender identities, including contact identities.IO zones are firewall-protected (firewall 119) containers of content andworkspace having a specified and implicit relationship to the overallactivity and workflow generated by suite 120. Several advantages ofidentity-oriented zone-management capabilities will be describedaccording to various exemplary embodiments detailed later in thisspecification.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating software applications and systemcomponents of an Agent software suite according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Agent software applications include Agent Readerapplication 115, Agent Poster application 116, and Agent Collectorapplication 117 as described with reference to FIG. 1 above. Firewall119 is illustrated as a block 119 to preserve hierarchy in descriptionand also in expanded form (119) to show supported routing function andsupported communications channels. Firewall 119 is in a preferredexample, a resident and self-configurable part of agent suite 120 and isminimally adapted to direct final destination routing of incomingmessages and to provide zone and identity policy violation alerts tousers when user or external contact behavior might trigger such alerts.

Agent Reader application 115 includes a plug-in for disseminating RSSfeeds as previously described. Reader 115 is adapted to enable a user tosubscribe to NNTP news groups and to collaborate using messaging andposting in conjunction with Agent Poster 116. In a preferred embodimentof the present invention, a user has identity oriented zones (200),which are segregated from one another and may include separateidentities associated thereto each separate identity belonging to thesame user and administrator of the zones.

In this example, reader 115 lists the exemplary user zones 200 readingfrom top to bottom within block 115 as a personal zone, a work zone, abusiness zone, a political zone, and an after hours zone. Each zone isadapted for material segregation and messaging according to thediffering identities of the user enforced by firewall application 119.For example, the personal zone would be used in routing all of theuser's correspondence messages and subscribed-to materials that are of apersonal nature or considered personal such as messages to and frompersonal friends, family members, and trusted individuals. A personalzone has at least one user identity (contact parameter) that the user iswilling to share with personal friends, family, and other trustedindividuals.

A work zone is adapted for correspondence and collaboration between theuser and those associates related to the user's employment. The useridentity associated with his or her work zone may be shared only withthose individuals associated with the employment environment of theuser. All correspondence associated with the work environment of theuser is routed to and from the work zone.

A business zone is exemplary of a zone adapted with a user's businessidentity. Perhaps a user has a separate business he or she is conductingseparately from work. All correspondence then that relates to the user'sbusiness is routed to and from this zone. The identity (contactinformation identifying the user) associated with the business zone isthe identity that the user leverages in correspondence to all thoserelated to the business.

A political zone contains the user's political identity and segregatesthe user's political correspondence and activities from other zones.Political fund-raising activities, campaign work, politicalcorrespondence, letter writing, and so on is contained within thepolitical zone.

An after hours zone contains the user's after hours identity that he orshe is willing to share with related organizations, Web-sites, and soon. The user may be single and belong to one or more dating services.The after hours identity then would be used to correspond with othersingles of the same service for example. The user's after hours identityis separate from all other zone-specific identities and no one has thisidentity of the user except those authorized to correspond with the useralong any subject falling within the after hours zone policy.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the zones listedand associated with Agent Reader 115 are exemplary and may be ofdifferent titles and number than are illustrated in this embodimentwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Itis also noted herein that different activities enabled by differentportions of the Agent suite may be associated with different zones asevidenced by the listing of only some of zones 200 within block 115.Different portions of the Agent suite may also utilize the same zoneswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment of the present invention, certain generic zones commonto most users like personal zone and work zone for example arepre-configured and provided for a user. A user may configure new zonesand identities as needed or desired. When an existing zone encompassessubject matter that begins to vary within the context of the zone, auser may split the zone into two new zones having separate identities ifdesired. There are many possibilities.

Agent poster 116 is used to post information (messages and binaries) toUsenet groups, posting boards, and other supported venues. Reader 115and Poster 116 are in a preferred embodiment integrated and accessiblethrough a common interface. However, poster 116 may also be providedwith its own interface as a standalone application packaged separatelywithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The active or configured zones 200 listed within Agent Poster 116include, but are not limited to a music zone, a literature zone, atravel zone, a sports zone, and a family zone. It is noted again herethat the actual zones used may be entirely different than the one listedin this example. The inventor provides certain zone description in thisexample for discussion purposes only.

A music zone is associated with a user's music identity and governs allof the user's posting activities with music services, and music binaryservers such as may be subscribed to by the user through Usenet or asimilar platform. For example, a user's binary collection of MP3 filesmight be accessible for posting through the music zone interface.

A literature zone is associated with a user's literature interests andmight govern a collection of pieces of literature that a user will postto a certain newsgroup for download by others. The zones travel, sports,and family govern materials appropriately associated therewith. Forexample, the travel zone would contain information about the user'stravels, vacation information, and so on. Using poster 116, the user maypost information to others related to travel opportunities or experiencethe user has had. Perhaps a user might post some e-tickets to a certaindestination for others to view and perhaps purchase or download. A usermight post e-tickets to a basketball game through the sports zone. Thesame user might post homemade movie files and picture albums through hisor her family zone. All correspondence with the user related to suchactivity is conducted to and from the identity appropriate zone.

It is noted herein that along with segregated user identities attributedto each user zone, zones also have separate contact identity listsidentifying those entities that have firewall access to the user througha particular zone and which are allowed to have and know the zonespecific identity. All of the activity conducted in zone specificity ismanaged by firewall 119.

Agent collector 117 is used to find and download binaries posted onUsenet binary servers using NNTP protocols, or other supportedWeb-storage servers like FTP servers. In the case of FTP (file transferprotocol) sites, both the poster and collector application would beadapted to work with FTP protocols. It is noted that the same zoneslisted in Agent Poster 116 are also listed in Agent Collector 117. Theserepresent zones that support binary collections in terms of collecting,posting, and viewing.

It is noted herein that poster 116 and collector 117 may be integratedusing one common interface without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention. It is also noted herein that collection ofbinaries can be practiced in conjunction with use of reader 115 withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Furthermore, the zones listed in reader 115 may also govern posting andcollection activities conducted under the identities associated with theappropriate zones. For example, if a user subscribes to a newsgroupserver that aids his or her employment and that server allows postingand download of binaries, then the work zone would also be visible or atleast accessible from poster 116 and collector 117. Agent Collector 117,like Agent Poster 116 might also be provided as a separate andstandalone plug-in to the overall Agent suite.

Identity/Zone firewall 119 provides zone and identity policy enforcementthrough implicit adherence to the most current zone configuration andidentity states. Application 119 may be thought of as a finaldestination router for incoming messages, interactions and downloads.Similarly, application 119 controls outgoing correspondence insuringthat zone and identity policies are not inadvertently violated.

Firewall 119 enforces routing of all incoming and outgoing messagesaccording to zone policy. Firewall 119 may be configured for any or allzones and for any or all identities. For example if a user attempted toemail a contact listed in a specific zone while working in a zone wherethe contact is not supported then firewall 119 would generate an alertdescribing a zone policy violation and display it for the user beforesending of the message would be allowed.

Application 119 directs final destination routing or sorting of allincoming messages and materials according to current zone policy. Thismay include structured Web-browsing in a zone specific manner. In asimple example of messaging, email directed to specific user identitieswould be filtered according to appropriate zone inboxes. Otherinteraction types including RSS, IM, NNTP, Voice, P2P, and Chat may besupported for final destination routing according to zone policy indifferent ways appropriate to the communication channels supported.

In one example an instant message addressed to a zone-specific useridentity causes firewall application 119 to dress the IM interface withan icon or skin that identifies the appropriate zone that the messagerelates to. If the user is currently messaging with another contactrelated to another zone then a new IM window reflecting the zone of thenew message may pop-up. Similarly, if a user attempts to IM a contactsupported by a specific zone using a generic IM interface, then firewall119 might change the interface to reflect the appropriate zone thatsupports the contact. If more than one zone supports the contact thenfirewall 119 might display a message to the user stating that thecontact is common to, for example, your work zone and your sports zone.The user may then select the appropriate zone for the communication.

Zone/ID manager 118 described with reference to FIG. 1 above enablesconfiguration of the physical zones and provides update and identitycreation services. Zone/ID manager 118 has a user interface orconfiguration form (not illustrated) that supports zone and identitycreation. The exact configuration of a set of zones and associatedidentities provides implicit rules for firewall application 119 to usein enforcement of zone policy. Additionally, zone manager 118 allows forcreation of explicit rules that firewall application 119 can use. Anexplicit rule can be a permanent rule or a temporary rule and caninclude a zone, an identity, and a communication channel alone or incombination.

A message replication module 202 is provided and adapted for the purposeof replicating incoming messages to multiple pre-assigned zone inboxesif applicable. In one example using message replication, a user mightreplicate an incoming email message specific to a user zone to otherzones of the user account or other user accounts held on one computer orcomputer network for example. In this case the user might be anadministrator of more than one identity oriented managed account.

Zone manager 118 and message replication module 202 as well as IOfirewall 119 may be, in one embodiment, provided as proxy Web-basedservices that enable interaction routing and Web-based workflowmanagement for users accessing and, in some cases interacting in realtime with the system through a Web-based portal. In another embodiment,a user may configure and manage zones and identities locally withminimal or no Web-based service support. A Web-based example ofidentity-oriented-management (IOM) services is described in detailfurther below.

Firewall 119 as described above is provided and adapted to providesecurity services for each zone and associated identities and contactsaccording to zone policy so that no zone cross routing orcross-communication is allowed if it is not desired. Firewall 119 useszone, identity and contact configuration as implicit policy for managingcommunication related to each separate zone. In this way an incomingmessage that should be routed to a user's work zone for example is notrouted to any other zone inbox.

Communication activity is governed chiefly by identity/contact pair(sender and receiver identities) enforced by firewall 119. A specificcontact listed for a zone-enabled user might exist and may have the sameparameters listed for more than one user zone if the contact has onlyone identity (email address for example). However the destinationaddress (user's zone-specific identity) the contact chooses for emailcorrespondence is preferably specific to only one user zone. For exampleif a co-worker john@iwork.com sends an e-mail to a zone-specificidentity frank@iwork.com and john@iwork.com is associated only with awork zone, then that message would be routed to the associated work zoneinbox. Identities are generated for zone management purposes.

However, it is possible that John only has one contact identity and inaddition to being a co-worker also is a trusted family friend that hasknowledge of a user identity specific to the family zone, perhapsfrank@family.net. If John uses family.net as the destination address inthe To: line of the email message then the email message isautomatically routed to the family inbox instead of the work inboxaccording to identity.

In the above-described routing example, John could inadvertently send awork-related mail to the family inbox if he types or inserts the familyidentity into the destination address by mistake instead of the workidentity if he is privy to both identities. However, the fact that theidentity visibly suggests to John that this is a family-related identitymight alert him of the mistake before send. In actual practice, Johnwill most likely have a work and a home email address even if he doesnot use the system of the invention. The contact information for Johncan be strictly managed so that the work zone does not support John'shome email address and the family zone does not support John's workemail address. More simply stated, if John mistakenly sends a message tothe family identity from work firewall 119 will catch the mistake andalert the user of an incompatible identity-contact pair.

In one embodiment an appropriate media handler adapted for a specificmessage of type can parse subject lines and content of an email message,for example, for an indication of zone specificity. It might be thatJohn has only one identity that is shared as a same contact parameteracross more than one user zone. In this case if John's subject linereads, “project management report” for example, but the destinationaddress of the message is the family zone identity, firewall 119 willdesignate the work zone as the appropriate destination instead of thefamily zone according to subject line interpretation. In this case it isassumed that a list of keywords and phrases would be provided that arezone specific for parsing to work successfully. If the subject line isblank or otherwise not recognized firewall 119 may intervene with a useralert to manually select which of the zones listing john @iwork.com themessage from John should be routed to.

It is noted herein that if John of the above example is operating froman interface of the present invention to collaborate with Frank, thenJohn will likely have separate identities for his own work zone andfamily zone, the identities listed as contacts in Frank's respectivework and family zones. In this case, zone-to-zone collaboration isperformed seamlessly with no errors due to synchronization ofidentity/contact parameters. More detail and specific examples ofmessage routing according to identity/contact pair will be providedlater in this specification.

All zones of a user may be configured on the user's desktop and some orall of them can be replicated at a network portal if the user hassubscribed to network hosted services. Such services may be offeredthrough zone host 103 described with reference to FIG. 1 above.

Exemplary zone list 200 is illustrated in this example and includes thezone descriptions work, community, business, family, literature, travel,personal, sports, music, after hours, political, and pet. Zones 200 areexemplary only as any one user may have fewer or more zones. List 200simply exemplifies the possibilities of different zone types that mightbe created. It is also noted that not all of the existing zones in thisexample are necessarily configured for posting and collectingactivities. However, it may be assumed that all created zones support atleast messaging and news group association. In this particular case, theuser may have 12 different identities, one for each illustrated zone.

FIG. 3 is an entity relationship diagram 300 illustrating structure andfunction of a zone according to one embodiment of the present invention.Zone structure 300 illustrates the existence of certain zone objects andtheir relationships in a zone object hierarchy. A first zone or Zone 1is illustrated herein with an indication that the zone is hosted(IsHosted). This means that the zone in question including allassociated objects thereof is managed by proxy by a network-basedservice that keeps track of message routing and replicates activity todesktop systems when user's log in to access the system. In oneembodiment, zone 1 might not be network hosted.

Zone 1 has a Directory, which is adapted to list one or more Contact(s)that are approved for that particular zone. Contact can be of Typeperson or entity. Directory may also list one or more Group(s), whichmay be of Type List or Company. List or Company implies a genericcontact parameter that is associated with more than one possible finaldestination. For example, a Group might be labeled Machine World andmight be of Identity Business, which has an Address of Typeemail=sales@machine.com and a message sent there might be routed to oneof a number of possible sales agents.

Contact has an Identity that can be of type home, work, etc. A contactJim might include Jim's work identity=“Jim at work” or his homeidentity=“Jim at home”. Jim might also have an Identity=Jim mobile (notat work or home). Identity has an Address, which can be of Type email,telephone number, IM address, etc. For one zone it is typical that acontact specific to that zone would have one identity and only one ofeach supported address per supported communication channel. For exampleif zone 1 is a family zone then Contact=person, Identity=home, andAddress=email and telephone number would be a logical configuration. Theemail address and telephone number identifies the channels anddestination parameters used to reach Contact at Home.

Zone 1 has a User Identity, which may be of Type home, work, etc. Like acontact, User Identity has an Address of Type email, telephone, IM, etc.User Identity might=Frank at Home and have an Address of Typeemail=frank@myhouse.com and a home telephone number, and an IMaddress=frank@hotmail.com. User Identity identifies the zone owner oradministrator.

A user identity is specific to a zone and identifies the owner of thezone in a manner specific to the zone adaptation. For example anidentity can be a home identity, a work identity, an after hoursidentity and so on. If the identity is a work identity then the zone itis associated to will be a work zone. A user identity has an addresswhere mail is routed (email) and may also include a telephone number, anIM address, and other communications address information if desired. Forexample a user identity for a work zone will include a work telephonenumber whereas a user identity for a home zone will include the hometelephone number. That is to say if telephone contact information isincluded.

A directory may, in one embodiment, physically include the zone identity(user identity for zone) along with listed contacts but may besegregated and not explicitly identified as a contact but as theidentity of the user for that zone. In this example, User Identity isnot illustrated as included within Directory but is a separate attributeof Zone 1. A user identity might also be expressed as a “Group” identityalthough the possibility is not illustrated in this diagram. A groupidentity might include a number of separate users all havingadministrative access at one time or another to the same zone whereinthe sum of users are expressed as a single group identity=Maple Church,for example, wherein a list of church zone-authorized members might beaggregated together under an Address or Typeemail=congregation@maplechurch.com. There are many configurablepossibilities. The case of group user identity implies administrativeequivalence among the listed individuals sharing the zone.

Zone 1 has at least one Inbox, which may include an email box, a voicemail box, a box holding subscribed-to mailings from a list server, a boxfor newsletters or notices from subscribed-to news groups, RSS Feed,etc. Inboxes are flexible according to supported channel. For example,an inbox might be provided to take incoming communication or materialscoming in over any supported communication channel.

In one embodiment there will be a single inbox set up for each supportedcommunication form. For example an email inbox specific to the emailaddress of the user identity is provided to contain incoming emails sentto the particular email address specifying the user identity of thezone. For example, all mail incoming to John@iwork.com goes into theemail inbox of that zone. An inbox may include an interaction loggingfunction, for example, to record message or call details of incoming andoutgoing activity

In one embodiment only a single inbox is provided within a zone andadapted to accept all supported communications addressed to the useridentity for that zone. For example, if a user has a private telephonenumber that is specific to the zone and published to approved contactsthen all calls to that telephone number wherein the sender identity ofthe caller matches one in the zones contact directory will be routed tothe zone message inbox as voice messages.

Inbox may contain one or more Message(s), which can be email messages,newsletters, Internet postings, Instant messages, etc. Likewise anymessage can be part of a message thread such as an ongoing emailcorrespondence. In one embodiment Identity, an attribute of Contact mayhave a Contact History of kept messages that can be reviewed as athread. In this case messages that are part of correspondence with acertain contact can be sorted serially or by other methods and isolatedas correspondence records attributed to that contact. Message(s) can besorted to one or more Folder(s) setup within an inbox for sortingmessages appropriately according to folder type such as “messagethreads”, “newsletters”, “chat transcripts” and so one. In this case auser may click on an appropriate folder to view any new messages thathave been filed since the last inbox access. Folders may also include aSpam folder, or a folder for unsorted messages.

Message(s) is linked to Collection, which is an activity attribute of aCollection Module that includes a Binary attribute. Binary files, whichmay be audio files, video files, picture (Jpeg) files and so on may besampled and collected (downloaded) through inbox architecture.Collection includes sampling available files that are marked or taggedwith a digital collection markup language (DCML), which is a conventionprovided by the inventor to enable more structure in sampling andtracking digital content that may be posted for example, in a binaryserver.

When posting material with an application adapted for the purpose, aposter may use DCML tags to summarize and identify posted materials. Auser looking for posted materials has use of a DCML reader that can findand interpret DCML tags. In this way a user can more effectively andefficiently obtain materials from servers and from P2P networks. In thiscase a binary server for zone 1 might be a listed contact (entity) andmight have an identity of “collection”. It is noted herein that Folderis also an attribute that is applicable to Binary and Collection wheredigital content may be sorted and kept in specified folders accessiblethrough inbox architecture.

Zone 1 is associated in this example to a second Zone 2 at the level ofdirectory. In one embodiment a directory might be shared between twoseparate zones as illustrated by a dotted rectangle labeled SharedDirectory. The attribute Contact of Zone 1 is linked to Contact of Zone2. This indicates that certain contacts of Zone 1 are also approved andavailable from the directory of Zone 2 while working from Zone 2. Inthis sense, both directories share one or more common contacts. Thelevel of contact linking across two or more zones is a matter of designand sharing can be configured such that the shared contacts may be thesame only in abstract identity but may exhibit differing attributes withrespect to actual contact parameters.

As described further above, the concept of hosted zones as illustratedin ER diagram 300 relates to a unique service for routing and managingzone specific interaction wherein zone owners have unique identitiesthat the outside world sees and wherein contacts approved to interactwithin a user zone are the only entities capable of interaction with theuser in a particular zone. In a hosted embodiment, the user subscribesto a portal service that provides routing services that are identity andzone specific as described further above. In this regard a portal pageis provided for the user to check and view zone activity from anynetwork-capable device. In a hosted embodiment a user may synchronizewith the Web-service updating zone structure and content between a localcomputer and the server hosting the zones. The zone-hosting service isespecially useful for a person or a group of persons having many zonesand identities to manage. A person having only two zones for example maynot require host services. If more than one user or a user group sharesa zone then zone hosting may be more likely.

Identity oriented management then may encompass all interactions betweena zone owner (zone ID) and outside entities in a secure manner such thatno disapproved contacts become privy to zone identities and similarlywherein no created user identities are provided inadvertently todisapproved contacts. In one embodiment a user may elect that no zonesare hosted and may manage all of his or her zone-specific communicationand archiving on his or her own computer. In either case of hosted ornon-hosted zones, the structure is essentially the same and zone policyis enforced in both cases by a zone firewall (119, FIGS. 1 and 2) thatwill be described in yet more detail later in this specification.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that ER diagram 300 mayinclude more or fewer attributes and may be extended to provideadditional component types and different associations between componentswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a user may have an IPtelephony application configured to be accessible from the well-knownPSTN network through normal telephone dialing for example. In this casea telephone number may be mapped to an IP application and specified to aparticular zone so that live voice sessions may be conducted in azone-specific manner. Any incoming calls that do not include informationof the caller that matches a contact in the zone directory would beautomatically rejected or sent directly to voice mail as a zone policyviolation by firewall 119. Instant messaging and other application-basedsessions like P2P file sharing can be conducted as well in azone-specific manner. Outbound campaigns specific to media types such asvoice or email may also be conducted in an identity oriented manner.

In one embodiment, the message attribute of Inbox can identify aninteraction thread (chain of correspondence) with one or more contactshaving access to the zone identity for communication. Such interactionscan include, but are not limited to voice messages or transcripts, emailcorrespondence chains, chat transcripts, message board or Usenetpostings and reply threads specific to contact/user identity pairs, andso on. These correspondence histories or threads may be stored asseparate interactions in one or more folders adapted to contain them.

Folders can be identified in any number of ways. For example, in a petzone there may be a folder labeled after a news group topic alt.showdogswherein the messaging history is recorded as an ongoing interactionbetween the user identity and one or more approved contactsparticipating in the group. In this sense, all of the relatedcommuniqués posted by the specified contacts (newsgroup members) listedin the zone directory would be automatically downloaded and stored inthe folder as an ongoing interaction. Further, the system can alertusers by any one of various communication protocols of any new updatesto interaction threads maintained in any of various sub-folders thatmight be created.

As previously described, folders may be provided to segregate materialsthat are received in a zone inbox or inboxes. Folders are shortcuts todata and can be navigated in typical OS fashion wherein opening of afolder reveals the files contained therein. Each inbox may have one ormore folders associated with it. A Zone and its navigable componentsincluding Inbox, Message, Binary, Collection, and Folder typicallyreference folders that are visible to an operating system of a hostcomputing device as a navigable tree of files and folders.

It is noted herein that interaction may also involve downloading,posting, or even sharing binaries (via P2P, NNTP, email or IM) thatbelong to a user's binary collection. For example, if the zone is amusic zone and there are contacts in the contact directory that areauthorized for content sharing, then binaries that are posted by thosecontacts can be detected and downloaded to the appropriate zone specificinbox.

In one embodiment a zone can support P2P contacts that can be listed ina zone directory and can be given access to a zone interaction folderfor the purpose of uploading content there from or depositing contentthereto using an application similar to a file sharing application or anFTP application. In traditional P2P networks there is a proxy serverthat accesses a user's computer on behalf of another requesting userthat is looking for a specific file to download such as a music file. Inthis case, the service might be network hosted by the zone hostdescribed with reference to FIG. 1 above and members may be preventedfrom accessing a file unless they are added to a zone directory list ofauthorized content sharers.

FIG. 4 is an architectural view 400 of a user interacting with Web-basedzone and ID creation services (124) according to one embodiment of thepresent invention. Zone-host server 105 provides zone-hosting servicesrepresented herein by zone/ID services software 124. Zone host 105 isrepresented logically herein as a single server, however one with skillin the art will recognize that as an entity providing zone managementand firewall/routing services, there may, in actual practice, be moreequipment associated with the function. The inventor represents host 105as single server herein for simplicity in illustration only. A moredetailed example of zone-host architecture according to one embodimentof the invention will be provided later in this specification.

As previously described above, zones uniquely identify a genre and auser. Hosted zones enable server-based activity and local computer-basedactivity with synchronization of the two. A user 401 has an instance ofzone wizard or manager 118 executed and running on a local computer forthe purpose of creating zone architecture and zone IDs.

User 401 has computer connection on-line through ISP 102 to backbone 104and zone-host server 105 offering Zone/ID services 124. In this case,server 105 thereafter hosts the zones created by the user and wizard 118is served in this example as a series of Web-forms 402, for creatingzone architecture, and 403 for creating identities specific to createdzones.

In this example there is a zone 404, a zone 405, and a zone 406 allcreated with the aid of Web-forms 402 and 403. In a one embodiment zonesare first created and then identities are created for each zone.Shopping zone 404 has a directory for including zone-approved contacts.Contacts may be added singularly or selected and imported from otherapplications. The contacts added to a zone will be privileged with theuser identity and contact parameters attributed to that zone forenabling correspondence between the zone owner and the approved contact.Contacts may also be added to zone contact lists implicitly as a resultof workflow activity, if a rule is configured for the purpose.

It is noted herein that shopping zone 404 does not have a permanentidentity associated with it. Rather it has one or more, in this case twoad hoc identities, ad hoc identity 1 and ad hoc identity 2. This mightbe because the particular user does not wish that any sales or serviceorganizations he or she might purchase from over the network has accessto any permanent contact information. The user in this case prefers touse a temporary email address for example as the only means of contactwith an organization.

To illustrate a simple example, identities for shopping zone 404 couldbe temporary email addresses used to conduct online transactions withselected organizations that then would be listed as approved contactentities for zone 406. Zone-host server 105 through an identity creationservice provides the temporary email addresses. In actual practice thehost owns a domain and sub-domain for enabling users to apply for ad-hocidentities that can be used until such time a user no longer requiresthe address. In one embodiment a generic email address domain can beprovided to all subscribers to use when applying for an ad-hoc identitywherein the user creates the identity portion or name portion for eachaddress.

Ad-hoc identities enable users to keep consumer related mail segregatedfrom their other identities used for personal correspondence,work-related correspondence, and other correspondence where wadingthrough sales-related adds, service offers, and so on is not desired. Anad-hoc identity facilitates correspondence with a service organization,for example, until the user no longer desires or requires communicationwith that particular contact. At that the time the ad-hoc identity canbe expired from service leaving the contact with no simple way to reachthe user. Similarly, the contact can also be purged from the contactdirectory if desired, or the next time correspondence is desired withthe particular contact a new ad-hoc identity can be created. Anotheradvantage for using ad-hoc identities is that if the contact compromisesthe identity by providing it to third parties then the user can simplyexpire the identity.

Personal zone 405 has a user identity of joe@MXY.net used for personalcorrespondence with friends and other trusted contacts. Zone 405 alsohas an ad-hoc identity that can be used for example in correspondencewith some contact entities like a dating service for example, where theuser will correspond with a contact for a period before letting thatcontact have access to the users permanent identity.

Work zone 406 contains the users work identity joesmith@abc.inc.biz usedfor work correspondence. An ad-hoc identity is similarly acquired fortemporary work relationships where it is not desired that the contact orcontacts have permanent access to the user. All of the users workassociates would be listed in the contact directory for zone 406.

In typical application for zones where there is at least one permanentidentity and at least one ad-hoc identity, the contacts listed in thedirectory would be associated with one or the other appropriately sothat outgoing messages do not provide the wrong contact with the wrongidentity. It is also noted herein that zones 404-406 each have at leastone inbox. Inboxes for the illustrated zones may include identifiedfolders and sub-folders that are specific to certain messages or messagethreads involving correspondence with certain contacts as describedabove with respect to FIG. 3.

In typical practice of network hosted zone management, after a user hascreated zones, server 105 functions as a store and forward server thatcan receive correspondence addressed to the hosted zone identities androute the messages to the appropriate inboxes and folders based onidentity of user (recipient) and contact (sender) enforced by firewall.Server 105 becomes the user's email server; phone message server; IMserver; and voice server. User 401 may connect to server 105 and viewstored messages through a portal page user interface (UI) dedicated toand personalized for that user. Several different views can be presentedand the user may delete, download, or view messages and can reply to andsend messages from the same portal interface.

If the user has a personal email account at email server 110, server 105can be designated as a forward destination for all email activityaddressed to the original account. The forwarded email may be sortedaccording to zone policy and may be retrieved using computer 401.Likewise, server 105 can be configured as a routing destination forvoice calls (VoIP, etc.) coming in through gateway 122 to voice server109. The user may create telephone numbers to give to contacts and mayhave calls to his or her own static personal numbers (cell, landline)forwarded to server 105 for voice message routing into appropriate zoneinboxes for voice messages. If user 401 maintains an open-lineconnection to server 105 for a definitive period such as a work period,the user operating a computer-based telephony application may take livecalls filtered through appropriate zones.

If a user desires, he or she may turn off zone-host services for aperiod of time and receive and send messages directly without insertingserver 105 into the routing paths. In any case, zone configuration,contacts, and messages may be synchronized between server 105 andstation 401. Synchronization between the server and a remote userstation is not required however to practice the invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating possible interaction pathsbetween an IOM client, network peers and service providers according toan embodiment of the present invention. IOM client 120 containsidentity-oriented firewall 119, replication manager 202, zone manager118, and configured communication zones 200. Client 120 might runlocally on a user desktop computer, a laptop computer, and in lightversions, on other network-capable computing devices having a means ofdisplay and input.

The network side of this example (within the domain of network 101)contains service providers 106-112 introduced with respect to FIG. 1above, a zone host implementation (124) and IOM peers 500, whichencompass other users operating all or a portion of an instance ofclient 120.

In this example, IOM client 120 has numerous zones 200 set up forcommunication. Zones 200 reading from left to right in zones 200 includea personal zone, a work zone, a collection zone, a sports zone, ahobbies zone, and a community zone. One with skill in the art willrecognize that the number and label of zones 200 configured for client120 may vary widely. In one embodiment, typical zone suggestions likework, personal, family, etc, might be provided and to some extentalready set up for a user. A user may build upon the model by addingmore zones as required. Although contacts and even identities can beshared between zones if desired, directories for each zone may also bezone specific. Each zone might have one or multiple inboxes includingprivate and shared inboxes.

If zones 200 are hosted zones then the functions of zone manager 118,firewall 119, and replication manager 202 are performed at network leveland do not specifically have to be provided locally although they maybe. In a zone-hosted embodiment synchronization between on-line anddesktop data may be ordered for downloaded/uploaded materials andmessages. In this case zone architecture (zones 200) is duplicated atboth locations. In this way a user may view or access data on-line usingany supported network-capable device including a normal telephone insome IVR-assisted embodiments. In the event of non-hosted zones 200,then the replication, zone management, and firewall functions are allperformed within client 120 where they are illustrated in this example.

Any of service providers 106-112 identified with respect to FIG. 1 abovemight interact directly over the network with client 120 in the case ofnon-hosted zones 200. Firewall 119 cooperates with replication manager202 to ensure that messages requiring local replication and localdistribution to appropriate zone specific inboxes occurs. For example,if an email from a family member is assigned to an inbox within thepersonal zone it may also be replicated to another inbox within the sameor even different zone if zone policy allows the replication.

It is noted herein that service providers 106-112 and peers 500 mayconnect from a network other than local Internet 101. For example, oneservice provider may be a telephony integration provider or carrierthrough which an interaction or event that will be routed to IOM client120 is sourced from the PSTN network or another communications networksuch as a wireless network and carried through network 101. Similarly,peers 500 may be connected to the PSTN (telephone) or another networkand interact with client 120 through network 101.

Zones 200 may not all belong to a same user for a given IOM client 120.It is possible to allocate zones to other users. For example a zoneadministrator may control the personal zone, while a different familymember may own the hobbies zone. A replication rule may be set up by theadministrator to replicate email assigned to a specific inbox within thehobbies zone to a designated inbox within the personal zone. Such areplication rule would be an explicit rule that may overridecontact/identity policy thus overriding firewall protection.

IOM peers 500 represent other users that are operating with the softwareof the present invention and therefore have their own client versionsinstalled, which may be hosted or not hosted. Peers 500 would interactdirectly with specific service providers 106-112 (depending oncommunication form) to communicate with the user through firewall 119 inapplication 120, which actually forms the final zone-specific sorting orrouting. In one embodiment where a message is replicated to more thanone inbox as part of a collaboration workflow, and the message requiresa reply from only one of the involved parties, one user may reply to themessage, the action causing notification to the other users that theyneed not reply to the message.

Alternatively if zones 200 are hosted, then peers 500 and serviceproviders 106-112 would interact directly with services software 124 topropagate text messages, voice messages, and so on. In this case, theserver associated with routing an interaction would publish the IPaddress, telephone number, Enum number, etc. of the client domainmaintained by the server. Enum is a known protocol for assigning contactparameters to any networked device or application and renders thatdevice or application accessible from the same or connected networks.

In the case of hosted zones it is noted that when a user connects to theservice (124) from a client-enhanced, network-capable device,synchronization may be automated meaning that all messages that havebeen routed to service-side inboxes and folders are simply synchronizedwith the user's resident zone architecture if present. In the case ofaccess with a non-client enhanced device, interaction and management canstill be performed, as is the case with Web-based email programs forexample wherein a user may view mail and download copies without erasingthe server-based messages. It is also noted herein that when a user isconnected live to services 124 then real time interaction is possible.

FIG. 6 is an architectural overview 600 illustrating an example ofreplication of messages according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Overview 600 encompasses Internet 101 and an exemplary IOMclient domain 603. Domain 603 may represent one IOM client havingmultiple accounts or it may represent more than one separate IOM clientaccount resident on one machine. In the case of separate accounts (3 inthis case), they may be distributed to more than one networked machinewherein each machine shares a same and active Internet connection suchas a DSL connection.

In this example according to one embodiment of a single client havingmultiple accounts, IOM client 603 is integrated for more than one user.An administrator 1 is illustrated within client 603 and is representedherein by a dotted rectangle 606. An administrator 2 is illustratedwithin client 603 and is represented herein by a dotted rectangle 605. Anon-administrator is illustrated within client domain 603 and isrepresented herein by a dotted rectangle 604. Assuming for example thatIOM client 603 is used by a family, then administrator 1 (606) mightlogically be a father, administrator 2 (605) might logically be amother, and non-administrator (604) might logically be a son ordaughter, the aggregate comprising a family sharing one IOM client.

In this case, replication of messages is governed by zone policy, withreplication ordered across the included user accounts. This case canexist regardless of whether zones within client 603 are hosted or not.It may be assumed for purpose of discussion that zone host 103, which isaccessible to client 603 through ISP 102 and backbone 104, hosts theillustrated zones. In the zone-hosted embodiment, all firewall routing,zone management, and replication is performed at server-side. Withinzone host 103 is illustrated a portal server 601, which is analogous ina logical sense to server 105 described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4above. Server 601 serves as a Web interface to, in this case users604-606. Another server icon is illustrated within zone host 103 andrepresents any other included equipment that might be provided toperform services such as routing, zone management, zone configuration,and so on.

Zone host 103 has a zone policy base 602 that is partitioned per client,and may be further partitioned if more than one user is classed as oneclient. Policy base 602 contains zone policy and certain zone managementoptions available to, in this case, administrators of IOM client 603.

It is noted herein that administrator 606 has a personal zone (P-Zone)that is divided into a private portion and a shared portion.Administrator 605 has a personal zone similarly divided into a privateportion and a shared portion. Non-administrator 604 has a personal zonethat is divided into a shared portion and a private/screened portion.There may be other zones attributed to each account however only apersonal zone for each account is illustrated for purpose of discussion.

Administrator 606 has a private inbox IB where only mail addressed tothe appropriate identity (A1) for that zone is deposited. Administrator606 has 2 inboxes (IB) in the shared area or portion of the personalzone. One shared inbox accepts all messages addressed to family@home.The remaining shared inbox of administrator 606 accepts messagesaddressed to the identity of non-administrator 604, the messagesdeposited there by rule. Administrator 605 (A2) has a personal zone with3 inboxes set up identically as that described above accept for theprivate inbox has the identity of A2 @home attributed thereto, theat-home identity of administrator 2. Non-administrator 604 has oneillustrated inbox where all messages to NA@home are deposited.

In a zone-hosted embodiment, Firewall routing, Zone management, andMessage replication for the emails addressed to A1, A2, Family, and NAare functions performed within zone host 103. However for purposes ofsimplicity in illustration the 4 mentioned zone identities areillustrated in a rectangular box logically representing functionperformed in this case at portal 601.

Assume that email server 110 has forwarded (SMTP) an email addressed toA1@home to portal 601 for routing. The message A1@home is private (notto be shared) and is routed to the private inbox of A1 personal zone asillustrated by logical a routing path (dotted line). Note there are noreplication rules that apply and no replication is performed. Similarly,a message addressed to A2@home is routed to the associated private IB ofadministrator 605 with no replication.

For email messages addressed to the family identity=family@home, A1 andA2 have access to a copy of the email through a replication rule. Therule might state that for the identity=family@home, replicate to P-Zone(A1), shared Inbox (A1, A2), and to P-Zone (A2), shared IB (A1, A2).Following a hierarchy of administrative power, the message may be routedoriginally to administrator 1 and then replicated (R) to administrator2. In this example, any email messages routed to non-administrator 604(NA @home) are replicated to another shared inbox set-up in both P-zoneA2 and identically in P-zone A1. IB NA then is a monitored Inbox thatenables administrators 606 and 605 to see messages routed tonon-administrator 604.

In a family situation, the above-described feature represents a parentalcontrol feature. Contact (sender) identities for those entitiescorresponding with NA@home are kept in a directory generic to P-zone 604(non-administrator). The contacts being monitored may be replicated tothe directories of P-zone A1 and P-zone A2 as “monitored contacts”.After some given period of monitoring, either A1 or A2 may delete thecontact from the appropriate contact list to nullify replication to thatzone of emails to NA@home from the specific contact. Provided that both“parents” delete the contact being monitored from their directory futureemails with that “approved” contact will be routed to a private/screenedIB in the P-zone of NA.

In one embodiment a sub-rule may also be provided that replicates adeletion action performed to delete a contact whereupon if either A1 orA2 deletes a contact related to emails routed to NA then the contactdeletion will replicate to the contact list of the P-zone directory ofthe non-initiating parent. In this sense, zone-specific policy rules maybe created based on identity/contact pairs or on identities or contactsseparately. For example, if a contact sending mail to NA@home is to bebanned, then instead of deleting the contact from a list of monitoredcontacts, it is moved to a contact blacklist. In this case the list isreplicated back to the zone hosting service and published, for example,in policy base 602. Subsequent messages from that contact may be blockedor “killed” by the zone firewall regardless of client identity.Moreover, a contact may also be placed under partial ban. For example,A1 may decide that messages from a contact banned for P-zone of NA arestill appropriate for sending to P-zone A2. For example, if a newsletterabout drugs is periodically sent to identities A1, A2, and NA@home fromthe same contact then messages from the contact to NA@home(contact/identity pair) are the only ones blocked by firewall.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that zone architecturecan be shared by more than one user and replicated for more than oneuser without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. In a case where there are multiple separate clientapplications distributed to machines or workstations on a LAN, forexample, then integration and control by one or more administrators isstill possible through policy-based administration. A separateintegration tool may be provided for the purpose of integrating multipleclient instances on separate machines that function, for example as aservice business or the like.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram Illustrating architecture of a personal zone700 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Personal zone700 has a private directory 701 and, in this example, a shared directory703. In one embodiment, private directory 701 and shared directory 703are part of a physical single zone directory with designation of sharedfor the entries that are shared. In another embodiment, a separatedshared directory may be provided.

Private directory 701 contains all of the contacts that have firewallaccess to the user's personal zone 700 where no other user has firewallaccess to view that portion of zone 700. Contacts may have a number ofactual contact parameters attributed thereto. In this case 1 contact isillustrated as an office ID for a contact Joe Smith. Joe's office emailaddress is joe@workplace.net. Joe's ID# for work is his workplacetelephone number of (919)-942-7068. In one embodiment some number otherthan a telephone number may be provided as a contact ID number.

Joe, in this example, is an associate at work and also a family friend.Therefore, shared directory 703 lists Joe with respect to his home ID.Contact parameters listed for Joe's home ID are an email addressjoe@smith.org and a telephone ID#919-942-1792, which is a number forreaching Joe at his home. Personal zone 700 is analogous to personalzone 606 described above with reference to FIG. 6. It may be assumedthat there are two inboxes associated with zone 700, a private inbox anda shared inbox.

Messages incoming to zone 700 from joe@workplace.net may be consideredprivate to the user and therefore are routed to a private inbox. Thefact that the private email contact for Joe is a work email may indicatethat the collaboration between Joe and the user is private and not to beviewed by any other persons. However, in order for messages from Joe tobe routed to the private inbox of the user, in one embodiment, he has tohave access to one of the user's identities that are set up for thepersonal zone 700.

In this example, in private identities 702 there are 3 personal IDs setup for zone 700. In some embodiments there may be only one personal IDset up for zone 700. Personal ID#1 is chris@ijones.com with an ID#(telephone) of 760-603-8822. It is noted in this example that a secondID for Chris is the same email contact parameter as the personal ID. Inthis case the user's ISP email account is the same as his personal zoneID. In this case all email messages addressed to chris@ijones.com arereplicated to the personal inbox of Chris as long as the sender islisted in private directory 701. Chris may import trusted contacts fromis ISP account and paste them into directory 701 and in some cases intoa replication directory (not illustrated).

A third private ID for zone 700 is listed as a portal IDchris.jones@portall.com. All messages addressed tochris.jones@portall.com will make it through to the private inbox solong as the senders are listed as contacts in private directory 701 andin some cases, in a replication directory. A replication directorycontains contacts approved for replication to inboxes other than defaultaccount inboxes.

In a zone-hosted embodiment, the service entity can intercept email sentto various and unrelated email accounts held by Chris and can replicateonly those emails where the sender is listed in directory 701 so thatChris may access all trusted email from one interface. However, inanother embodiment zone 700 may be set up with a single identity that isunique such as chris@mypersonalinbox.com. In this case Chris may electto physically “share” this identity with trusted contacts that normallysend email using one of Chris's other identities by sending the contactan email where the identity is listed in the from field of the message.

If the contact chooses to use the identity but he or she is not listedin directory 701 then the firewall application might alert Chris that anon-listed contact has your identity. An option may be then presentedfor enabling Chris to add the sender address to directory 701. Moreover,a contact might be added virtually without giving the contact knowledgeof a zone identity just for the purpose of having emails from thatcontact routed to the private inbox of zone 700 for viewing. In thiscase a special rule might be set up that directs all emails from aspecific contact addressed to a generic identity (other account) to berouted to or replicated to the private inbox of my personal zone 700.This can be accomplished by equating identities. When replying tomessages received from the contact the generic email interface wouldautomatically be called up and the from address listed would be theemail account address of the specific email account and not the personalidentity of zone 700. There are many possibilities.

A fourth ID listed in private identities list 702 is an ad hoc identity.An ad hoc identity allows Chris to temporarily correspond with contactsthrough zone 700 where the contacts are not granted firewall access to apermanent zone identity. In this case, the ad hoc identity ischrl23@ispend.com. This ad hoc identity allows Chris to do personalshopping, for example, from private zone 700. Chris may share the ad hocidentity with outside entities by sending them email using the identitysuch as when shopping. The entities receiving an email from the ad hocidentity perceive the identity to be the email address of Chris Jonesand will correspond with Chris using that email address. Such entitieswill, temporarily, be added to private directory 701 with a constraintto the ad hoc identity (temporary contacts). At such a time when thelife of the ad-hoc identity expires, the entities no longer havefirewall access to Chris and are then purged or archived from directory701. In this way, Chris may correspond with non-trusted contacts for anypurpose without divulging a permanent email identity for example.

Zone 700 in this example has shared identities 704 and thus, presumably,a shared inbox. Shared identities 704 are identities that are alsoprovided to one or more zones other than zone 700. A first listedidentity in shared identities 704 is family@jones.com with an ID#760-603-8823, which may be the family telephone line accessible toanyone in the family. This identity may be a single identity for afamily zone that is, in this case shared with zone 700. All emailsaddressed to family@jones.com are routed to the family zone. Certainones or all of those messages may be replicated to a shared inbox ofzone 700 provided the senders of those messages are listed in shareddirectory 703.

joe@smith.org with ID#919-942-1792 is a family contact whose messagessent to the family ID from the contact ID are routed to the family inboxand replicated, in this case to a shared inbox of personal zone 700. Inthis case joe@smith.org is listed in the directory for the family zoneand in directory 703 (shared across zones). A second ID listed in sharedidentities list 704 is a family member ID jus@jones.com. with an ID # of760-603-8823. This ID belongs to a family member Justin, for example,and might be a single ID for Justin's inbox of his personal zone.Certain contacts sending email to Justin are replicated to a sharedinbox of personal zone 700 provided those contacts are listed indirectory 700.

In this case, if Joe sends an email to Justin using jus@jones.com, thatmessage will be replicated to zone 700, perhaps in a shared inboxadapted for the purpose. In this way Chris has access to all emails sentto Justin by Joe. If Chris decides that he no longer needs to see emailfrom Joe sent to Justin he may simply delete joe@smith.org from shareddirectory 703. However, it may be that Chris also corresponds with Joeregularly using the contact identity joe@smith.org. In this case, theidentity joe@smith.org would be retained in private directory 701. Inthis way messages from Joe to Justin would not be replicated becausejus@jones.com is not a private identity in list 702.

In one embodiment, all email addressed to Justin's inbox might beinitially replicated to a shared inbox accessible to Chris with thesender addresses automatically added to shared directory 703. After somemonitoring, Chris may delete any of the contact listings therebyflagging that contact listed in Justin's personal zone directory so thatfurther email from that contact is not replicated. Similarly, thedeleted contacts may later be reactivated to directory 703 if Chrisdesires to resume monitoring email messages addressed to Justin sentfrom the deleted contacts.

Zone policy is what determines final routing of all messages. In oneembodiment telephone numbers can be similarly treated. For example, alltelephone calls from Joe at 919-942-7068 can be routed to 760-603-8822even if Joe dialed 760-603-8823, which is the family telephone. In thiscase a rule may exist that specifies that all calls from Joe at hisoffice should be private and should ring the private line of Chris(8822). This can be accomplished either at the level of the network(hosted zones), or by an in-home routing application integrated with ahome computer network. Telephone routing may also include computer-basedtelephony applications as well without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a hosted email account firewallapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention. In thisexample a user has three separate email accounts 800 set up according tonormal protocols. These are an email account 1, an email account 2, andan email account 3. It is assumed for purpose of discussion that emailaccounts 1-3 have separate user email addresses associated therewith.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, activity relatedto all three accounts can be aggregated through a single interface usingone method of the present invention in a zone-hosted embodiment.

At the bottom of this exemplary diagram there are three zone inboxesillustrated. By label, these are Inbox Zone1, Inbox Zone2, and InboxZone3. A user may elect that the service of the present inventionintercept email from designated email servers of accounts email 1-3wherein the senders of the intercepted emails are listed in directoriesof inboxes 1-3, which are zone specific. Contacts that have sent emailto the user using a To: address associated with any of accounts 1-3 canbe listed in any of directories associated with zones 1-3. Zones 1-3might, in one embodiment, be adapted with any of email addresses fromaccounts 1-3 as user identities.

In such a case of hosted zones, the service accesses each of the emailservers attributed to the user through accounts 1-3 and retrieves allemail messages stored for the user that exhibit the sender identitieslisted as contacts in zone directories. These email messages may then bedeposited in a message queue 801 provided for the user at the networkservice portal hosting the zones on behalf of the user.

A message filter 803 using may provide message filtering such as virusfiltering and the like using a variety of known filters 802. Thisprocess may be optional in one embodiment because it might be assumedthat since the user has listed the contacts in zone directories theywould be those contacts that are trusted.

An email parser 804 then checks each email message for sender address(contact) and sends the information to firewall application 805.Firewall application 805 is analogous to firewall 119 described furtherabove. Firewall application 805 may then check the sender address of amessage against zone/identity rules to determine which zone inbox toroute the message to. In a simplest case the rule is simply the zonethat has the address listed. In this embodiment only the contacts thatare listed in a specified zone directory can send messages that areredirected or replicated from email servers to the appropriate zoneinboxes. In this case the user may open a zone and see all of the emailfrom the listed contacts and can reply to those contacts from the zoneinbox transparent to each contact.

In another embodiment zones 1-3 have single unique identities and do notinclude generic user email addresses attributed to other user accounts.In this case the user can import those trusted contacts intozone-specific directories and can send them email from a singleinterface containing the user identity for the zone that the user wantsthe contact to have firewall access to. If a contact chooses then he orshe can send email directly to a granted identity address thusaddressing the email server of the system, which then usessender/identity pair matching to ensure that the email is routed to theappropriate inbox.

Firewall 805 is adapted to alert a user, for example, if a user identityhas been compromised (zone policy violation alert). If a listed contacthas shared a unique user identity with another user who then sends anemail message to the user using the identity, the firewall alerts theuser of a zone policy violation (correct user identity; non-listedcontact). The user has an option of adding the non-listed contact orrevoking the identity privilege of the contact that compromised theidentity if that contact can be identified from a list of one or morecontacts that had firewall access to the compromised identity. Emailhistory might be useful in identifying such a contact. For example, thenon-listed contact might be a CC or BCC of a message previously sent tothe user from the contact that compromised the identity. Another optionmight be to simply blacklist the non-listed contact for futurereference. Still another option might be to create an ad hoc identityand reply to the non-listed contact using the identity informing thecontact that the old address is being replaced with a new one. In thiscase the non-listed contact may adopt the new email identity, which canbe revoked at a later time.

In a preferred embodiment only trusted contacts have firewall access toany of the user's resident zone identities for email or othercorrespondence. In this respect all specific zone email identities arepaired to email contacts that are granted firewall access to them.Firewall protections ensure that no messages are improperly routed.Outgoing messaging is also protected by firewall 805 in a preferredexample. Zone identities in the case of email for example are allassociated with a single email account that is useable with all of thecreated zone identities. A user can work from within a zone to send andreceive email where the contact list is specific to that zone. A usermay also work outside of a zone initially when sending email, however ifthe user types a contact or selects on from a contact list, the actionby default causes zone identification by some graphic indication such asthe appearance of a zone-specific icon or skin in the interfaces theuser is working with.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram 900 illustrating components and function of anidentity oriented firewall application 119 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. In a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, IO firewall 119 controls interaction flow in both zone-hostedand non-zone-hosted embodiments.

In this example, a plurality of interaction or media queues 902 areprovided to queue incoming interactions. Queues 902 can include, but arenot limited to an email queue, a voice mail queue, a newsletter queue, atelephony queue, a presence queue (IM etc.) and so on. A media handler(not illustrated) may be provided, in one embodiment, for eachdistinctly different type of media supported by the system. A mediahandler may be adapted to recognize any supported interaction of mediatype and to ensure that the correct media type enters the correct queuetype according to zone policies enforced by firewall 119.

In one embodiment of the present invention, queues 902 can beimplemented with a single interaction queue that sorts and prioritizesall incoming interactions. In a live embodiment where a user isconnected for communication, queues can be adapted to queue live callswaiting and so on.

Firewall 119 is the main application between any sender of a mediainteraction and the final user destinations for the interactions whetherthey are live interactions or queued messages or the like. Firewall 119,in this example, has an identity analyzer 906, a content analyzer 904,and a directory manager 905. An incoming message 901 is illustratedwaiting to be processed in queue(s) 902.

Identity analyzer 906 is a software component that attempts to determinethe identities associated with any incoming or outgoing message. Forexample, identity analyzer begins processing an incoming message bylooking up the sender identity or ID of the entity responsible forsending the interaction. Identity analyzer also looks up the useridentity, which is the destination ID for message 901. In many instancesall of the information required for firewall 119 to successfully routemessage 901 might be determined by identity analyzer 906. However,content analyzer 904 can be consulted in an event that more informationis required to successfully route message 901.

In an example of email, message 901 should have a sender ID and a userID (destination of message). The unique sender ID and user IDcombination may define a specific zone inbox, illustrated herein asinboxes 908, as an appropriate destination for message 901. In this casethe user ID is the zone-specific ID and the sender ID is listed in theapproved contact list in the particular directory for that zone.Firewall 119 determines which zone or zones is appropriate for messagerouting and determines if there are any zone violations.

If the sender ID is not correct for the user ID found in message 901,for example, then firewall 119 attempts to further analyze message 901before triggering a zone policy alert, or an outright zone violation.One additional step is to check CC and BCC identities in the message. Ifthese identities are listed as approved contacts for a particular zone,then a zone policy alert (short of a violation alert) may be sent to theuser asking the user for permission to ad the new sender to the contactlist for the zone. In this case, the new sender was given the user'sidentity either directly or indirectly and the user is asked toarbitrate routing of the message. If the user is not available then themessage may be filed, after a period of time into a quarantine folder ofthe inbox. Likewise, if a sender approved as a contact for a particularzone, but uses a user ID of another zone firewall 119 attempts toresolve the issue by checking if the user is a contact in the otherzone. If not, then there may be a zone policy alert. It is noted hereinthat a fact of a sender being listed as a contact for a particular zonemay by default enable routing of the message to the zone if there are noother possibilities.

In one embodiment message 901 may have more than one user ID listed as adestination. In this case, firewall 119 will check sender ID againstzone directories of each zone and if found in a particular zonedirectory then that zone receives the message. It is important to noteherein that in some cases with some media types may result in nodetectable sender ID such as a blocked telephone number. However, a userID for a zone might include a telephone number with a unique extensionidentifying the zone. In any case, a user ID parameter must be presentin order for a message to reach queue(s) 902 to be processed for furtherrouting.

If for some reason zone policy cannot be determined because identityanalyzer 906 cannot determine sender ID, then content analyzer 904 maybe called to help determine origin of the message. For example, a replyrelated to an ongoing communication between several parties might beallowed if through content analyzing, it is determined that the messagebelongs to a particular message thread specific to a particular userzone and the user wishes to accept all content generated by the thread.

In one embodiment where binary attachments are involved such as thosethat might be taken from a binary news server then content analyzer canbe called on to verify content of the attached file as content that theuser is interested in or has subscribed to. In this case, a zoneviolation might occur if a content poster identity is found in a zonedirectory as an approved contact but the content does not fit anapproved profile of content allowed for download. It might be that amalicious user has compromised the poster's identity and is attempting,disguised as the legitimate poster, to post undesirable material. In acase where a user might download content of any kind, content analyzermight be called by default to verify content against a content profileaccepted by the user for a particular zone.

In some cases, a contact might be detected and/or validated aslegitimate for a zone according to content analyzing. For example, if acontact is not listed for a particular user zone according to use ofuser ID, but the content analysis shows that the attachment could onlyhave come from the approved contact then the correct contact informationfor the specific zone can be implied beyond reasonable doubt. Encryptionkeys, digital signatures, and other forms of validation can beassociated with a particular contact so that if the contact uses anunlisted or otherwise unknown parameter, the contact may still bedetermined and validated.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, content analyzer 904functions as a back-up component to identity analyzer 906. However, insome embodiments, content analyzer 904 is called by requirement wherebinary attachments are concerned such as to verify legitimacy of acontact listed as a news group contact, for example.

In this example, directory manager 905 controls contact whitelisting,contact blacklisting, and manages identity contact history tracking. Forexample, new identified contacts that have been validated for a zone,but not previously listed in a zone contact directory can be added to azone directory and provided as a whitelisted contact. Similarly,contacts found to have compromised a zone identity or found to beresponsible for undesirable content can be deleted from zone directoriesand added to a blacklist.

Identity analyzer 906, content analyzer 904, and directory manager 905are connected in this example by a logical bus structure 907. A messagerouter 911 represents routing function for all interaction. Router 911represents final destination routing caused by firewall 119, moreparticularly zone determination and inbox specification. It is notedherein that router 911 may represent different routing applicationsaccording to various embodiments. For example, in a zone-hostedenvironment there my be one or more physical routers involved ininteraction routing depending on design and media types supported. In anon-hosted environment like, for example, a desktop implementation,routing applications normally in use or set-up for a specific media typemay be supported. In all cases however, final zone and inbox sorting isenforced by firewall application 119.

In practice of the present invention message flow generally follows apath beginning with identity analysis then content analysis (ifrequired) followed by directory management (if ordered). Messages thatare zone policy violations, including spam and other rejected messagesmay be sorted accordingly. In this example, each zone has a quarantinefolder 909 provided therein and adapted to receive messages thatotherwise cannot be successfully filed according to zone policy. A dataaccess and update module enables a user, through an interface, to viewand edit current zone policy and to add any explicit zone policy rulesthat may be created to override certain policy issues.

One with skill in the art will recognize that in the case of firewall119 identities that make up contact or sender information and user orzone-specific information will take the form of normal contactparameters of the media types supported. Email identities will be of theform of email addresses for example while telephone identities will bein the form of a telephone number. All routable media types can utilizezone specific variations for user identities and in the case of a peerusing the software of the present invention, sender identities (contactidentities from the user perspective) may be as varied as useridentities further aiding in identity pair management.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating firewall alert featuresaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. A user 1001(computer icon) may accept messages in a zone-specific manner and maysend messages in a zone-specific manner according to identity orientedzone policy enforced by firewall.

In this example, user 1001 is working from within an exemplary zone 1002labeled Ebay, which for discussion purposes has an email identity ofjoe@ebayseller.com. In this example, email is one of communication mediatypes supported and sender/user Ids are of the form of email parameters.

A collection of exemplary zones 1004 belonging to user 1001 isillustrated at left in the diagram and contains a golf zone 1005, amusic zone 1006, a business zone (Ebay) 1007, and a car zone 1008. User1001 has contact directories for each zone and identities for each zone.Business zone 1007 is the zone currently being used. This example is ofa desktop implementation of the software of the invention that is notzone-hosted.

A data store 1009 is provided to contain all of the actual zone data andactivity history. Data store 1009 can be provided in dedicated fashionfrom memory resources generic to the computer of user 1001. The data maybe provided, for example, as a dedicated portion of the user's harddrive. In this case, firewall implementation is on the computer. Inanother embodiment the firewall application and data may be hosted on anappliance or peripheral, perhaps a physical router and may not bepresent on a PC.

Each of the zones owned by user 1001 has a user identity, which is someform of joe i.e. joe, jb etc. A user identity for a zone may bepermanent (lasting the life of the zone) or temporary as in an ad hocidentity. For example a user identity for golf zone 1005 might bejoe@golf.com. A user identity for music zone 1006 might be jb@music.net.The identity for business zone is joe@ebayseller.com as described above.The identity for zone 1008 might be j12@cars.com. These identities areone that user 1001 is willing to share with certain contacts on apermanent or, in the case of ad hoc, temporary basis.

A pop-up alert 1000 represents an identity/zone firewall alert pop-upthat may be sent to alert user 1001 of any violations. Pop-up alert 1000may be displayed at any time of need or convenience on the display ofuser 1001. In this case, pop-up alert 1000 contains more than one alertfor discussion purposes. Typically one alert may only contain referenceto a single violation of zone policy.

Because user 1001 is working from within zone interface 1002 (email) ofzone 1007, his interface has some graphic representation of the specificselected zone. Alert 100—contains two alerts illustrated. These are anoutgoing message alert 1008 and an incoming message alert 1009. Alert1008 (also labeled alert 1) reads that a message user 1001 is attemptingto send violates zone policy. This may be because the user is attemptingto send email to a contact not listed in a directory. The firewallbreach is based on a non-listed contact. More particularly,joe@ebayseller.com has attempted to send an email to someone that is notlisted in a directory of zone 1007. Pop-up 1000 can immediately begenerated because the system knows that Joe is already working withinzone 1007.

In this case Joe sends a message to a contact jim@iwork.com, which isnot listed in a directory for business zone 1007. Before the emailmessage is queued for send, alert 1008 is displayed and has an option ofaccepting the email as addressed or rejecting the email and re-selectinga proper contact or zone for emailing the message. If user 1001 acceptsthe message as addressed then jim@iwork.com might be added to adirectory specific to business zone 1007 for future reference.

If user 1001 rejects the message as written then further options areprovided accordingly. For example, user 1001 may have intended that Jimis the correct recipient. In this case preserving Jim as the contact inthe message may cause the interface to change graphically to representgolf zone 1005 listing Jim as a contact. If golf zone and one other zonelist Jim as a contact using he same email identity then a zone list maybe presented so that user 1001 may select the appropriate zone, henceuser identity for the message.

Zone alert 1009 also labeled alert 2 reflects an incoming messageviolation where a message is received from dean@mechanics.com that isaddressed to joe@ebayseller.com. The violation here is that Dean is notlisted in a directory for business zone 1007. User 1001 may arbitratethe violation by adding Dean to a contact directory for business zone1007 or the message can be rejected.

If the offending message is rejected in this case, a problem stillremains as to how the contact dean@mechanics.com became aware of theuser identity joe@ebayseller.com. CC or BCC records on any activityhistory conducted with the address dean@mechanics.com through zone 1008may shed some light if a contact found in CC or BCC records is one thatis also listed in the directory of business zone 1007. It is possiblethat the contact may have shared the user identity information with theowner of dean@mechanics.com. One option is to send an email todean@mechanics.com directing the recipient not to use the identity or beblacklisted from all zones. Also, the contact identified as a possiblesource for the identity leak can be contacted and if uncooperative,blacklisted. In case the contact that compromised the user's Ebayidentity cannot be distinguished from other contacts listed in businesszone 1007 using communication history records, then the user still hasan option of changing the identity for the zone.

In all embodiments of the present invention, a contact cannot reach auser through any zone wherein the contact identity used in the mediatype to gain firewall access is not listed in a contact directory of thezone. Other than explicit rule such as for example “replicate allmessages from user@abc.net to all inboxes”, firewall 119 adheres toimplicit identity rules existing according to current zone directoriesand identities.

It is noted herein that contacts using shared identities reach userfacilities like email servers and the like directly. However contactsthat do not have firewall access to zone identities may still have theircommunications routed according to contact listing in zone directoriesif such communication is intercepted by ordered forwarding or bypassword protected third party access as in the case of generic emailaccounts. In a zone-hosted embodiment, all communications to anyuser-related identity of any supported media type can be zone managed.

FIG. 11 is an architectural overview of a Web-based service adapted forthird-party zone hosting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. A zone-hosting service party 1100 is illustrated in thisexample as a service organization that can provide third-partyinteraction routing, and zone management services for users on a privatelevel or on a business level. Service provider 1100 is analogous to zonehost 103 described with reference to FIG. 1 of this specification. Inthis example, exemplary internal equipment and exemplary connectionequipment types are illustrated to show separated function.

A PSTN switch 1101 is illustrated in this example and represents anytelephony switch within the PSTN network local to party 1100. Thepresence of telephony switch 1101 illustrates that clients may accessthird-party services offered by zone-host 1100 through the PSTN networkand a gateway 1105 by way of a telephony trunk 1113. Gateway 1105 can bean SS-7 gateway or any other known gateway adapted to bridge telephonecalls between telephone and data-packet networks. Gateway 1105 may bemaintained, in one embodiment by the enterprise hosting zone services.In another embodiment, gateway 1105 is leased from a telephony servicecompany or a network provider. PSTN switch 1101 may also direct incomingvoice calls destined to clients that subscribe to zone-host services.

A laptop computer icon 1102 is illustrated in this example andrepresents client capability for accessing services through a wirelessconnection 1114 and an Internet or other WAN backbone 1115. Icon 1102represents a wireless computer in this example, but may also represent awireless cellular telephone capable of network browsing or any othernetwork-capable wireless device.

A business server 1103 is illustrated in this example and represents anybusiness-to-business (B2B) server. Server 1103 may access zone host 1100over a network access line 1116 and network backbone 1115. Server 1103can be an automated system that accesses zone host periodically or onethat maintains a session-connected state with zone-host 1100 over aperiod of time. Zone host 1100 may manage interaction routing and zonemanagement services for many individuals of a business that maintainsone or more servers 1103 that enable identity-managed access and, insome cases live session interaction between clients and associates ofthe business and the business itself using zone host 1100 as a proxyinteraction routing and zone-management entity. B2B server 1103 may alsobe a business-to-client (B2C) server or a client-to-client (C2C) serversuch as a community portal application practicing presence protocolswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

A computer desktop icon 1104 is illustrated in this example andrepresents individual client access to zone host 1100 through anetwork-access line 1117 and network backbone 1115. Desktop computer1104 represents any client or client group accessing services providedby zone host 1100 through network access methods such as digitalsubscriber network (DSL), dial-up methods, or other known network accessmethods using dedicated or shared physical lines.

Zone host 1100 maintains at least one web portal 1106 through whichservices may be accessed. Web portal 1106 presents client informationaccording to zone policy enforced by IOM firewall application 1108represented in the form of a server in this example. Portal 1106, in apreferred embodiment, is a server which may be adapted for HTML, WML,and other data presentation protocols enabling display and data accessto clients operating user interfaces adapted for the purpose accordingto method, equipment type, and protocols used by the client.

Zone host 1100 has an interaction router 1107 adapted for the purpose ofrouting incoming interactions according to zone policy enforced by IOMfirewall application 1108. Router 1107 is illustrated logically as astandalone piece of equipment in this example however in actual practicerouting applications may be provided as dedicated applications servingspecific media types and may be distributed over more than one physicalnode. For example, a router may be provided and dedicated to incomingemail in the form of a mail service. Another routing application may beprovided and dedicated to route telephony calls. VoIP calls may behandled by yet another routing application. The inventor illustratesrouter 1107 as a dedicated node for purpose of clearly separating andexplaining routing function from other functions enabled within host1100.

IOM firewall 1108 enforces all identity oriented routing and sorting ofmessages and in some embodiments, live sessions according to zonepolicy. A zone manager application 1109 is logically illustrated hereinand is adapted to provide zone and identity creation and managementservices.

Portal 1106 is, in this example, connected to a back-end data server1110 by way of a high-speed data connection 1121. Server 1110 is adaptedto maintain and serve data relating to interaction and communicationactivity recorded for clients of host 1100. Data server 1110 has accessto an on-line data store 1111 that is partitioned according to existingclients of host 1100. In one embodiment, data store 1111 is internal toserver 1110 and maintains the actual data relating to communicationactivity for clients. In one embodiment, the functions of data store1111, back-end server 1110 and portal 1106 are hosted in a single node.In another embodiment there may be more than one portal server as wellas more than one back-end data server 1110 and data store 1111.

It is noted herein that the illustrated equipment types of this exampleare logical implementations only and should not be construed asrequirements in form or function for the practice of the presentinvention. For example, data service, portal services, interactionrouting, IOM firewall protection, zone management services, and networkgateway services may all be implemented in one or more than one machinein a variety of combinations without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention.

In practice of the present invention according to one embodiment,clients represented by network-capable devices such as wireless device1102, and desktop device 1104 have direct network access to portalserver 1106 by way of backbone 1115 and server access line 1119. In apreferred embodiment server 1106 is a Web portal and the operatingnetwork is the Internet network. In this case, a client operating adevice such as laptop 1102 forges a wireless connection to the Internet,for example, through a wireless ISP and navigates to server 1106 andfurther to a particular presentation page maintained for the particularclient and accessible through normal Internet address protocols such asURL and URI protocols.

Once client 1102 is in session with server 1106, he or she may accessand view messages and other communiqués that have occurred since thelast time the client logged into the service. A client represented bydesktop computer 1104 also has direct access to portal 1106 through UIfunction and network navigation although in a tethered (wired)embodiment. Clients operating wireless devices and tethered devices can,in one embodiment, conduct live interactive sessions such as telephonyor VoIP sessions through portal 1106 during a period of time when theyare connected in session with portal 1106.

Business server 1103 may connected to portal 1106 using an automatedinterface adapted to automatically update messages and other activityfor multiple clients whose zone structures are represented both inserver 1103 and in data store 1111. In one embodiment a separate portalfunction may be provided and specially adapted to communicate withserver 1103 using a machine-readable mark-up language like an XML-basedlanguage. In this same embodiment, live interaction may be conducted aswell.

Zone host 1100 receives incoming messages and, in some embodiments, livevoice calls on behalf of subscribed clients and routes all of thoseincoming communiqués based on zone policy set up for the subscribedclients. For example, incoming voice calls may arrive at host 1100through gateway 1105 from anywhere in the PSTN network. Interactionrouter 1107 treats each voice call according to zone policy enforced byIOM firewall application 1108. Router 1107 has a logical networkconnection to firewall application 1108 by way of internal data network1118 in this example.

Router 1107 consults firewall application 1108 for each incomingcommuniqué. Firewall application 1108 is responsible for determiningidentities of the incoming communiqués, more particularly the senders ID(calling party) and the destination ID (receiving party). Forasynchronous calls (voice messages) that are not part of live two-waycommunication between parties, router 1107 routes the messages toback-end server 1110 where they may be queued in the appropriate inboxes(voice message boxes) of the identified clients according to currentzone policy of the client.

Subscribers may periodically access portal server 1106 to check theirvoice messages and to download them to their devices. In typical fashiona client would login to server 1106 and provide authentication. Afterproviding authentication, a portal interfacing Web page is presented tothe client. The Web page has at least summary information of current andpast activity conducted on behalf of the client including indication ofwhether voice messages are present and what zones and inboxes anyexisting messages belong to. The client may sample voice messages bybrowsing zone architecture presented in a navigable tree or by short-cutnavigation to the inboxes identified as containing new messages. Theclient may then download all or selected voice messages to his or herduplicate zone architecture contained on his or her access device.Downloading voice messages is conducted according to current zonepolicy, which may include replication orders for replicating certainselected messages to particular inboxes or other folders contained onthe user's device or to a folder on a selected other device connected toa network that also includes the user's device. A zone manager (Z-Mgr.)1109 may enforce replication using a message replication applicationsimilar in function to application 202 described with reference to FIG.2.

It is noted herein that an inbox or folder designated to receive areplicated message does not require representation by zone architecturefor the client at the server side. All that is required is that theserver knows the destination of the designated folder on the userdevice, which can be made known in a download request. When a userrequests download of voice messages for example, portal server 1106retrieves the appropriate data from server 1110 over data link 1121.

In one embodiment, a client may access portal 1106 from a PSTN-basedtelephone through gateway 1105. In this case gateway 1105 functions as aproxy interfacing node holding the live call and interfacing with portal1106 over a special data link 1120 provided for the purpose. IVRtechnology may be used to provide a client with means for accessingspecific information. Client identities for voice may include telephoneextensions that vary for each zone. For wireless cellular clients,wireless markup language (WML) and other wireless data presentationlanguages can be used.

In one embodiment voice sessions may be conducted between clients andcallers wherein the calls are routed live through portal 1106. In thiscase an incoming voice calls at gateway 1105 may be routed according toidentity information to a telephony application operated by asubscribing client. The calls are firewall protected, as are voicemessages and identities for the client may include Enum identitiesassigned to client voice applications or telephony peripherals. In thecase of routed live sessions Portal 1106 functions as a call bridge andestablishes the call connection between the caller and the client'saccessing device.

Email, news letters and other message types including voice messages andlive voice sessions may arrive at zone host 1100 from anynetwork-capable device connected to network backbone 1115. Interactionrouter 1107 routes each message type according to zone policy enforcedby firewall application 1108 as with all other communication. Messagesare accessible through portal 1106 according to zone policy and livesessions may also be conducted as previously described.

One with skill in the art will recognize that router 1107 is representedlogically in this example. In one embodiment there are separate mediahandlers for each supported media type. The media handlers in such anembodiment are dedicated handlers that are responsible for identifyingparticular media types of communiqués incoming and for directing routingof those using the appropriate routing applications.

Zone manager 1109 enables clients to construct and organize zones and insome cases to create user identities for the constructed zones. In oneembodiment, a separate identity creation service is provided for thepurpose of creating user identities for zones and any ad hoc identitiesfor outgoing communications. A user may access a zone management Webform or page from portal server 1106. In one embodiment, zone manager1109 is accessible without requiring portal connection. In such anembodiment, all modifications and additions of zone architectureparameters can be updated directly from server 1109 to server 1110.

In one embodiment, all incoming and outgoing communication between aclient of host 1100 and other parties is routed through zone host 1100.In another embodiment clients may select a level of zone hosting thatmay provide routing services for only incoming communication. In stillother embodiments some of client zone architecture may be serviced andmanaged while some of the same zone architecture is not hosted.

In this particular example of zone hosting, router application 1107 isessentially dumb meaning that it cannot enforce complex identityoriented policy across one or more media types. Firewall application1108 outputs routing instruction to router 1107 whichever media type isinvolved. Primarily, firewall application 1108 is concerned withidentities and how they interpolate with zone policy. However asdescribed with reference to FIG. 9 above application 1108 can alsoanalyze attachments, message threads, and may also check email CC andBCC identities and identities included in other recipient list typesthat may apply to other broadcast-capable mediums like RSS and IM.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that identity orientedmessaging and live interaction may involve several media types supportedby a particular clients with multiple identities used for each of thosesupported media types. In a business environment a server such as server1103 can be adapted to retrieve messaging for multiple clients havingmultiple zone structures and identities. Live interaction routing ispossible in both business and single user embodiments. In a preferredembodiment of the present invention zone hosting can be applied to oneor more zones that are part of client zone structure and can supportone, a combination of, or all of the media types and protocols describedwith reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating software layers and componentsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodimentsoftware 1200 is illustrated in three basic software layers. These are adata storage layer 1201, a zone firewall layer 1202, and a mediapresentation layer 1203.

Data storage layer 1201 has a data store 1204 partitioned for clientsA-(n) and an archive engine 1205 for compiling old history data forclients and storing them in an organized fashion for later access ifnecessary. Layer 1201 is responsible for maintenance and service ofactivity data for clients of the IOM service.

Layer 1202 is responsible for establishment and maintenance of zonearchitecture and message replication as well as identity orientedmanagement of communication. In addition to IOM services layer 1202 alsomanages contact directories, white listing, black listing, andcommunication history tracking. In this embodiment, zone configurationmanager 1213 is included in the domain of firewall application 1212.Also included within the domain of firewall application 1212 is thereplication manager 1211. Firewall 1212 has, in addition, a directorymanagement function 1206, an identity analyzing function 1207, a messagerouting function 1208, a content analyzing function 1209, and a zoneauthenticator 1210.

Media presentation layer 1203 is responsible for presenting media toclient subscribers upon request and may in one embodiment serve asinterceptors of messages incoming for processing. In this regard aplurality of dedicated media handlers work to identify communicationthat is incoming and to identify communiqués stored on behalf of anyclient. Media handlers provided in this example include but are notlimited to a voice handler 1214, an IM handler 1215, a binary handler1216, a news handler 1217, an email handler 1218, and an RSS feedhandler 1219. As constructed in this example, application 1200 can beimplemented on a single machine such as a desktop computer. In a desktopembodiment, presentation layer 1203 provides one or more UI views ofactivity conducted by a client according to zone policies. In aserver-side hosting embodiment, layer 1203 presents a portal interface(Web page) for each subscribing client or client group.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that software 1200 canbe provided in various configurations including some or all of thedescribed components without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention. Moreover, software 1200 can be implemented on asingle machine or it can be distributed over more than one machinewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Likewise, software 1200 may be provided as a desktop application thatmay vary in design and implementation from a server-based version usedin a zone-hosting embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating portal interface functionalityaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. A portal interfacepage 1300 is logically illustrated in this example to show exemplaryfunctions that are provided to clients of a zone hosting serviceaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Interface1300 is personalized to particular subscribed clients having access toit. Interface 1300 enables IOM management and may be provided accordingto several known markup language formats used to enable access andmanipulation of data through various possible access devices. Someexamples include the HTML-based formats and wireless access protocols(WAP) including WML.

In this example, interface 1300 is in the form of a browser framesupporting all of the generic browser pull-down menus 1301 and all ofthe generic browser icons 1302. Like all browser frame architectures,there is an Internet or network navigation address window or bar, whichin this example reads http://www.myzoneportal.com/activitysummaryillustrating the personal nature of the Web page to a client. Portalinterface 1300 may be preceded in delivery to a client by an appropriatelogin page or procedure.

Interface or portal page 1300 has a zone navigation tree 1303 providedin a hierarchical format familiar to most operating systems. Tree 1303enables direct navigation to inboxes and folders that may be associatedwith user zones that are established for the client. At the top of tree1303 is an icon labeled My Zones. Activating this icon such as by mouseover or mouse click reveals zones, labeled Z in this example. Byselecting a desired zone, inboxes (IB) and listed folders (F) arerevealed.

Interface 1300 has a viewable workspace 1304 adapted, in this example,to display new activity that has occurred across all zones since thelast user login. Workspace 1304 has a familiar search input windowtypically provided by a third-party search engine. When online a usermay search the Web or prevailing network through this interface.Activity summary information 1306 is, in this example, displayed forview within workspace 1304. Activity 1306 represents a summary of all ofthe activity across hosted zones that has occurred since the last userlogin was performed as was stated above.

In this example it is shown that the current client has 6 new emails inan IB for zone 2 (Z2), which is a work zone in this case. There is alsoone voice message queued for the client in the same inbox. A selectableicon labeled Details is provided and associated with the information forzone 2 so that a client may immediately call up the details and anyfunction for viewing and downloading messages.

In this example, further activity 1306 is displayed and associated to azone 4 (Z4), which is a play zone. There are 3 new instant messageinvitations waiting in an IB associated with Z4. Also displayed are 5new emails that were deposited in a folder associated to a zone 6 (Z6),which is a music zone in this example. Activity summary information 1306can be configured to list all new activity that has occurred accordingto all supported media types not limited to email messages, voicemessages, binary files, RSS feeds, news letters, chat invitations andother presence alerts, and so on.

Portal interface 1300 has a second viewable workspace 1305 adapted inthis case to display details from the summary activity displayed inworkspace 1304 through interaction with one of the displayed detailsicons. In this example, a user has highlighted the “one new voicemessage” line in summary information 1306 associated with the work zone(Z2) and activated the details icon. In the details workspace 1305 theIB and Z2 heading appears. The detailed description 1311 of the newvoice message appears including identification of whom the message isfrom (jim@abc.net), and the time and date the message was received. Inthis case, a play icon and a reply icon are provided within workspace1305 and associated with message 1311. The play icon initiates audiblerendering of the message and the reply icon invokes an appropriatehosted application a user may manipulate for replying to the message.Such an application may be a version of an IMAP email interface that ishosted by the service and enhanced to allow voice messaging. In oneembodiment, after sampling viewing activity summary 1306, a user mayelect to synchronize the information with his or her accessing device.Afterward, a user may reply to messages and the like off-line usinglocal applications instead of using server-based applications.

Interface 1300 has scroll functions represented logically in thisexample by a vertical scroll bar 1308 and a horizontal scroll bar 1309.Although it is not illustrated herein, each displayed information windowor workspace may be separately scrollable (having dedicated scrollfunctions). Another way a user may obtain ordered views of activity isby using a traditional drop-down menu approach as is illustrated in thisexample by a drop-down menu 1307. In this case an activity summary viewwas ordered and displayed as information 1306 and upon furthermanipulation, 1306. However, other ordered views are possible and shouldnot be limited to views of all messages, specified zone views,replicated activity, shared activity, timeline alerts, general alerts,and archived information.

To exemplify other possible views that can be formatted in various wayswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, consider azone view of a specific zone. A user may click option Zones from menu1307 and receive an iconic representation of all of the current zones.By clicking on a detail icon associated with any listed zone, a user mayreceive a detailed architecture (tree portion) specific to that zoneshowing the inboxes and folders of the zone. Such detail may bepresented for display in workspace 1305. If desired, a user may furtherorder detail by selection of an option, provided for the purpose, forviewing activity for that zone. Selecting the option view activity maythen enable the user to browse through the inbox messages and foldercontents for the selected zone. Therefore, all of the function providedthrough navigation of tree 1303 is, in this example, replicable throughother functional means such as by manipulating menu 1307. Moreover,mouse over and right clicking on options can also provide a means todrill down to detail in zone inboxes and folders.

One with skill in the art of various network-capable devices willappreciate that interface 1300 may both visually and functionally appeardifferently according to device type, access protocol, and supportedmedia types without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. In one embodiment, for example, a user may access his or herportal page 1300 using a standard telephone and negotiate availableoption through such as IVR interaction.

A view of replicated activity selected from menu 1307 may bring up aworkspace 1304 containing activity information similar in structure toactivity information 1306 accept that new messages that were notreplicated would not be displayed. Selection of the option shared maycall up a workspace wherein all shared components like shared inboxesand folders are displayed. Moreover, shared contact directories can alsobe viewed through this option.

In one embodiment of the present invention a view for time alerts can beordered by selection the option Time Alerts in menu 1306. In this caseworkspace 1304 may indicate the existence of any time sensitive activityacross all zones. A user may pre-configure certain correspondencethreads identified by contact and user identity, for example, as timesensitive correspondence. In this case the timeline related to thereceipt of and reply to messages of thread can be displayed along withthe message activity summary. In this way a user may be alerted if, forexample, if a time window for responding to the latest received messageis approaching or exceeding a pre-specified time allotted for responseto certain types of messages, or to a threshold time window establisheda particular correspondence thread involving one or more contactidentities. A time alert may be displayed to a user at any time whetheror not a timeline view is ordered. Such alerts may appear as pop-upalerts or on an alert bar provided for the purpose.

In one embodiment of the present invention an administrativecontrol-view option (not illustrated) may be provided for enabling anadministrator to access zone architecture and apply certain servicelevels to specific zones or zone activities specific to zones or acrossmultiple zones. For example, if a zone architecture reflects a hostedbusiness environment where users might be sales agents sharing zonesand/or inboxes and folders, administrative response time rules may beapplied for outgoing communiqués that are in response to client requestsfor information or service. In such an embodiment a response rule forpurchase order requests queued in an inbox in an offered products zonemight be “respond to all request within 2 hours of queue time” whereas aresponse rule for customer service in a customer care zone might be“respond within 8 hours of queue time”. An administrator may order aservice view, for example, across zones to analyze how well agents areperforming.

The same embodiment immediately described above can be extended to anon-business or family-oriented zone architecture having sharedactivity. In this case the administrator could be a parent and responserules can be applied to one or more family shared inboxes to insure thatmembers of the family respond to certain messages in an appropriatetime. For example if a grandmother sends an email to a son, it issocially important that the son respond to the grandmother in areasonable amount of time out of respect. Likewise if a son or daughteris involved in a collaborative school project, it is important thatcommuniqués received from peers involved in the project are addressed ina responsible time frame. There are many possibilities.

General alerts can be generated and displayed for users at any timewhile a user is logged in to the portal system. Alerts related to zonepolicy violations and other administrative alerts related to accountstatus and so on may be considered general alerts. By selecting viewalerts option in menu 1307, the user can view all zone policy and otheralerts generated since the last login. A user may also order views ofarchived information by selecting Archived from menu 1307. Such viewsordered can be zone specific views or views across all hosted zones.

Portal interface 1300 has an interaction mode option 1310 that allows auser to set interaction status according to presence information. Forexample, an option Live can be selected if a user wishes to accept liveinteraction while logged into portal page 1300. An away icon is providedto indicate presence information that the user is logged in andcurrently away. If a user activates the Live option, he or she canaccept live calls, instant messaging, and so on through the portalinterface with all interaction conforming to zone policy enforced byfirewall as described further above.

In one embodiment a user may be defined as a business of multiple usersor agents having multiple hosted zones and identities. Live interactionin this case may be a default state for a business having allcommunication routed to and from the business by proxy with incomingcommunication routed to appropriate user or agent inboxes and identifiedtelephony extinctions and outgoing communications routed to destinationsin a zone and identity specific manner. In the case of hosting abusiness, portal page 1300 can be provided in multiple instances for theagents that are receiving service. An example would be for multipleagents accessing the server simultaneously from a LAN network ofconnected devices. A very large business with many agents might have aseparate portal server dedicated to hosting the business.

A user may elect to operate off-line or not hosted for periods of timewherein hosting services are not used. In this case it is assumed thatthe user has zone architecture and policy installed locally so that whennext online the activity can be replicated or synchronized with thehosted architecture. In the case of live interaction, telephone numbersand extensions can be published in the telephone network at one or morelocal CTI switches maintained by or leased by the hosting service. IVRservices and other telephone network services can be similarly providedand maintained and or provided and leased by the zone host and adaptedto cooperate with the portal system so that during live interactionwhere hosting is performed, incoming and outgoing communications areconducted according to zone policy and identities. One such examplemight be a contact calling a client where the contact uses a businesstelephone number to reach the client. An IVR service can be used toidentify the contact and purpose of the call. Automatic numberidentification (ANI) and destination number identification service (DNS)as well as IVR prompting can be used to properly identify the contactidentity. The destination number can be assigned to one or morezone-specific user identities including telephone extensions, IPaddresses, message boxes, and so on. The host then using theidentity-oriented firewall performs the final destination routing to theappropriate live extension or application on the local station of theclient (if live) or to the appropriate message inboxes and folders (ifaway).

It will be apparent to one with skill in he art that interface 1300 canhave many function variations and view possibilities without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention. Interface 1300 maybe customized for a single client or a client defined by multiple users.

The methods and apparatus of the present invention provide a uniquecapability of managing communication and digital collection according tomultiple client and contact identities, which can be personalizedaccording to a variety of zone descriptions. The invention can beimplemented with or without zone hosting capabilities and can tievirtually any communication media to zone architecture enforced by zonepolicy. The methods and apparatus of the present invention empower auser in constructing a social communication environment thatsuccessfully excludes undesired communication and provides convenienceand security in communication management for a client or client group ofindividuals.

Managing Social Interaction

According to one aspect of the present invention, the inventor providesa method and apparatus for describing broad social interaction over acommunications network and for managing that interaction in anidentity-oriented fashion. The methods and apparatus of the presentinvention are described in enabling detail below.

FIG. 14 is a logical overview of a network architecture wherein socialinteraction services are provided according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. In this simplified overview, the inventor illustratestwo separate geographic portions of a PSTN network. These are, a PSTNnetwork 1401 and a PSTN network 1402. PSTN 1401 and PSTN 1402 arelogically separated in this example by a digital network representedherein by a digital network backbone 1411. In a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention backbone 1411 represents all the lines, equipment,and access points making up the well-known Internet network. However,backbone 1411 may represent an Intranet, or other WAN network. Likewise,PSTN 1401, 1402, may be a private instead of a public telephone networkwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Moreover, wireless digital and telephone networks may be represented inthis example without departing the spirit and scope of the presentinvention although none is specifically illustrated herein.

Within PSTN 1401, there is a plurality of clients 1406 (a-n) illustratedas having network connection capability to a local telephone switch (LS)1403. Switch 1403 represents any local switch available to clientswherein such clients may connect thereto using such as computerequipment including a telephone modem. In this case, each client 1406(a-n) is represented by a computer icon. However, other modes of networkcommunication may be represented herein without departing the spirit andscope of the present invention.

Switch 1403 has connection to an Internet service provider/Gateway(ISP/GW) 1409, which in turn has connection to network backbone 1411.Hence, each client 1406 (a-n) has a network connection capability fromhis or her respective computer nodes through switch 1403, ISP/GW 1409,to network 1411. In one embodiment, the network connection describedherein is a simple dial-up Internet connection. Although it will beapparent to one with skill in the art that clients 1406 (a-n) may beusing other network-capable devices and may be connecting to network1411 using other methods known in the art.

Similar to PSTN 1401, PSTN 1402 has clients 1407 (a-n) illustratedtherein and represented as computer icons wherein they each have aconnection to a local switch (LS) 1404, which in turn has connection toan ISP/GW 1410, which in turn has connection to network backbone 1411.

In a preferred embodiment, network backbone 1411 represents the Internetnetwork and may hereinafter be referred to as Internet 1411. Theinventor chooses Internet 1411 as a preferred example of a WAN becauseof its high public-access characteristics. A service provider 1412 isillustrated within the domain of Internet 1411. Service provider 1412 isadapted to provide a variety services to clients 1406 and 1407 (a-n).Among other services provided, identity oriented management services areprovided as described with reference to the patent application listed inthe cross-reference section of this specification. Additionally, serviceprovider 1412 provides an array of services termed social interactionservices (SIS) by the inventor. Service provider 1412 may be assumed toinclude all of the communications equipment, including servers describedwith reference to the zone-hosting service party 1100 of FIG. 11. Inthis example, additional services are provided for facilitating socialinteraction among clients over a network.

Service provider 1412 has an instance of a social interaction servicessuite (SIS) 1413 available thereto and adapted to provide servicesconstructed around a unique descriptive language termed socialinteraction markup language (SIML) by the inventor. For the purpose ofthis specification, SIS shall be defined as an array of services thatutilize SIML to define various aspects and components used in varioussocial interaction activities that are enabled by the descriptivelanguage. SIML is, in a preferred embodiment, a compilation of XML-baseddescription language components that each provide rich metadatadescriptions of various aspects related to practice of socialinteraction among clients such as clients 1406 and 1407 (a-n). SocialInteraction Markup Language may be based on some other type of mark-uplanguage construct other then XML, however the inventor chooses XMLconstructs in a preferred embodiment because of their widespread use andadaptability to various platforms, applications, and communicationprotocols. More detail about the structure and components of SIML willbe provided later in this specification.

Internet 1411 also includes Web servers 1414 connected thereto andadapted as typical electronic network servers that serve electronicinformation pages and/or provide third-party services using hyper texttransport protocol (HTTP), wireless access protocol (WAP) and otherwell-known network protocols. Servers 1414 may represent e-mail servers,chat servers, NNTP servers, web page servers, information systems, P2Pservers, VoIP servers, and virtually any other type of server that maybe connected to Internet 1411 and that may provide some form of serviceto clients. Clients 1406 (a-n) within PSTN 1401, and clients 1407 withinPSTN 1402, have, in this example, client software (SW) instances 1408provided thereto.

In the present example, SW 1408 is an installable or downloadable clientapplication and that enables clients 1406 and 1407 (a-n) to practice thepresent invention with regard to disseminating, creating and postingcontent using SIML and its various components in cooperation with SIS.Client application 1408 works, in this embodiment, in conjunction withSIS application 1413 to enable social interaction in various forms to bepracticed in an identity-oriented fashion.

In one embodiment of the present invention, service provider 1412 mayprovide, for example, a collaboration service aided by SIS 1413 whereinclients among 1406 and 1407 (a-n) may participate, defined as a socialgroup, using client SW 1408. Using a collaboration service as anexample, SIML is leveraged to provide rich description of all of theconstructs and boundaries of the group, the communication applicationsand protocols of the group, the subject matter for collaboration for thegroup, the media files or other applications used by the group forcollaboration, and the identities of those clients who are defined aspart of or who may be allowed to participate in the group's socialinteraction. SIML enables a group to dictate its own level of structurefrom a loosely organized group, which may even be open to publicparticipation, to a tightly structured group inclusive of specificidentities with security regimens, which may also be identity oriented,in place for access and participation.

In one embodiment of the present invention, software 1408 is an “agent”application analogous to the application “agent suite” described abovewith reference to FIG. 1 in the co-pending application Ser. No.10/765,338. In this embodiment client 1408 may be presumed to contain anapplication for posting, an application for reading, and an applicationfor collecting. In addition, zone management and firewall components maybe integrated therein.

In another embodiment of the present invention client 1408 may be atemporary download that may be downloaded from service provider 1412.Still another embodiment, client 1408 may be a plug-in module downloadedfrom service provide 1412 and installed to an existing application thatnormally disseminates binary content such as a media player applicationor some other binary consumer.

Clients 1406 and clients 1407 (a-n) may utilize the capabilities ofclient 1408 in order to partake in social interaction in associationwith groups that are described using SIML. In addition, clients may useapplication 1408 in order to form loose-knit social groups amongthemselves for the purpose of trading of binary content, collaboration,or for the purpose of performing other types of group activities overthe network. SIML components communicate of the network using theexisting application layer of a network protocol stack integrating withthe appropriate transport protocols in a fashion transparent to servers,routers, and other network nodes involved in a data path.

Client 1408 does not necessarily have to be dependant on SIS application1413 in order to successfully practice the present invention. Forexample, using client 1408 in an embodiment of an agent application, aclient may post binary content using a poster application to such as aP2P server wherein the content provided by the server is richlydescribed using a component of SIML that is specifically adapted toprovide rich description of posted binary content. Likewise, a clientmay use a reader portion of the application find rich content describedaccording to SIML and can utilize to that rich description to enableenhanced content sampling and dissemination of the content. Stillfurther, a collector portion of the application may be provided andadapted to leverage the rich summary description of content to provide ameta indexing service that organizes a large collection of binary filesfor access, reposting, and so on.

Service provider 1412 may provide services using SIS 1413 to enable suchservices. One example might be that of a search service provided toclients such as clients 1406 and 1407 (a-n) wherein those clients mayuse their application 1408 to connect to a server that may function as aproxy to locate SIML content that may be carried in third-party servers.Such a service ma be made to function in a transparent manner to thecontent host server. Another example of a service that may be providedby service provider 1412 might be that of a collaboration servicewherein a client that wishes to form a social interaction group forproject collaboration, for example, may define all SIML constructs ofthe group, and rules for proceeding, and may cause other invited membersof the group to be notified via various communications channels for thepurpose of joining the group, including, in one embodiment, receiving aversion of software 1408, if required, to enable interaction.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating various components of socialinteraction services suite 1413 and relationships between them accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. SIS 1413 provides SIMLcapability exemplified herein by a logical module 1500 labeled SIML.SIML may be thought of logically as a grouping of interrelated XML-basedcomponents that address one or more areas of social interaction. SIMLapplications, exemplified herein by a logical block 1501, may includevarious applications that use portions of or all of the SIML components,which may also be thought of as features.

SIS 1413 enables a wide variety of problem solving and fulfillmentinteractions like, for example, customer support, auctions, matchmaking, FAQ creation, electronic voting, and electronic gaming, amongothers. SIS allows for a large group of problem solvers to cooperativelyfulfill requests of a very large social group in a manner that providesmore structure without using proprietary solutions or, in many cases,software. SIS 1413 enables social interaction over existing networktransport layers using standard protocols. It does not require any typeof proprietary framework.

An example of an SIML application might be that of an SIML collaborationapplication hosted by one or more individuals and made available forothers using SIML-capable software. Another one might be a socialinteraction group devoted to match making and constrained by identityfiltering. SIML has a Social Group Description Language (SGDL) feature1502. SGDL 1502 is adapted to provide rich description of variousaspects related to a defined social group. SGDL 1502 may include avariety of SGDL applications that define specific interaction grouptypes or classes. One example of an SGDL application might be anapplication that identifies and defines a particular type of socialgroup, perhaps evolved over time from ubiquitous interaction hosted byan NNTP server. Another example of an SGDL application might be one thatdefines a particular corporate interaction group purposely set-up for atemporary collaboration project. It is important to note herein thatevery SIML application includes or references at least one SGDLapplication and that SIML applications may differ according to purposeand scope, as well as the types of groups serviced and extent offunctionality provided. Likewise, an SGDL application may include one ormore described hosts for hosting the interaction. A good example of thismight be an NNTP server or servers used transparently as hosts formessage posting and download between participants of the group.

Social interaction within a group includes propagation and disseminationof media between participants of the group. Therefore, a component ofSIML includes a media markup language (MML) component 1504, whichincorporates a media type definition (MTD) feature and may also includea binary series indexing (BSI) feature, if group interaction includesposting and dissemination of binary content.

The mentioned MTD feature provides rich description of the contentsubject matter of a posted series or message in an NNTP environment andmay be used to access media that fits the appropriate content rules forthe news server or for particular groups using the server. Using MTD, aclient may quickly navigate to the BSI indexes of the series or messagesthat most concern him for dissemination. Normal message content, ofcourse still exists within the server and the client may browse normalnon-SIML-enhanced content as well.

Feature 1504 using MML including media type definition (MTD) providesrich description of one or more media types approved for groupinteraction, and instructions for calling, operating, and otherwisemanaging the defined media types for group interaction includingsub-components (described later in this specification) for creating andmanaging BSI that provide rich metadata descriptions of a series ofposted binary files. MML provides rich meta-description of the actualmedia content occupying message payloads, or content stored for downloadsuch as from an FTP server or a P2P server. A BSI is an extension of MMLused for NNTP posting and subscribing activities.

An identity markup language (IML) component 1505 is provided within SIS1413 and may be integrated into an SIML application as part of the SGDLapplication. IML provides a rich metadata description of identities(individuals and groups) including email addresses, IM identities, IPaddresses, messaging application identifiers, telephone numbers, orother types identifiers that may be specific to an individual client orto a sub-group of clients. IML 1505 may also provide identityinformation about a social interaction group that may be used todifferentiate such a group from another social interaction group. Byusing IML, clients may subscribe to content in an identity-centric wayrather than in an application specific way.

SIS 1413 includes a social interaction protocol (SIP) component 1506adapted to provide rich metadata description of specific protocols,rules of engagement, instruction sets for message posting, mediahandling, and interfacing with existing message handling and transportprotocols. SIP includes conventions like publish, offer, fulfill,subscribe, request, invite, join, notify, vote, and list. Not allfunctions may be included in a particular SIML application. The exactfunctions available depend in part of the SGDL and transport used inmessage propagation. For example, a group using file transport protocol(FTP) would have different SIP features than one using NNTP.

An SIML transport component 1507 is provided as part of an SIMLapplication and provides the interfacing mechanisms described in XML forusing existing transport protocols used in TCP/IP, user datagramprotocol (UDP) or other network protocols including HTTP, NNTP, RSS,WAP, IM, real transport protocol (RTP), multi-purpose Internet mailextension (MIME), SMTP, IMAP, remote copy protocol (RCP), simple objectaccess protocol (SOAP), remote desktop protocol (RDP), universaldescription discovery and integration (UDDI), LDAP, and others. It isnoted herein that the network transport or “messaging layer” is anexisting part of network structure and is not an integral part of SIML.SIML simply utilizes the existing transport protocols available over theprevailing network for message propagation.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art, that the variousdescribed components of SIS 1413 are integrated and work together toestablish a social interaction group's presence and purpose. A group maytake on any level of formality or structure that is described andprovided for by the mark-up components defining the group and groupapplication. For example, in one embodiment, there may simply be ameeting place, such as an NNTP newsgroup wherein the group is simplydefined as a loose conglomerate of would-be participants that mayaggregate to the server for the purpose of trading files, providinggroup support to one another, or some other form of activity that can bedefined using a post/subscribe model common to an NNTP server. Such agroup may even evolve or form to include a number of identifiedindividuals that were simply interested in the same things and, perhapsshare common goals.

In one embodiment of the present invention, groups such as the looselyformed group described above may eventually take on more and morestructure as one or more members of the group take on leadership roles.For example, client using SIML-enabled software such as client SW 1408may create SIML components for use in the groups evolving activities.For example, if most of the active participants do not want to see AVIfiles then an MTD constraint may be included in the group applicationthat limits video to, perhaps mpeg only, or mpeg and windows mediaapplication (wma). There are many possibilities.

In another embodiment, an NNTP newsgroup, or several such newsgroups,may be used by a highly structured group organized outside of the NNTPenvironment to post and subscribe to SIML content according to thegroup's mandate. In this embodiment, only certain individuals requiringsecurity authentication may be allowed to disseminate content. In anNNTP environment, SIML content may reside along with normal binarycontent. The content host does not have to be modified in order topractice the present invention.

As described further above, transport component 1507 includes theavailable instructions for leveraging transport protocols to propagateSIML content and messages. In a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, SIML message content is tunneled into the application layerof the network model in a transparent manner similar to the way SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol) is tunnelled inside the HTTP protocol onthe Internet.

In a specific example of NNTP transport the SIML-BSI component is usedto describe a series of multiple related files. On Usenet, the binaryseries is the primary focus for posting and collecting. For example,songs from a compact disc or album, pictures representing a photo shoot,sequence of related photos, or a movie that is split into RAR segments.

Posters always work in terms of posting a binary series and collectorsalways work in terms of sampling and downloading a binary series. Themajority of binary series contain from between 10 and 100 separate filesor “messages”. However, there may be as many as 1000 separate filesmaking up a binary series. In current art there is no utility forenabling posters or newsreaders to manipulate binary series content atthe level of the series itself. In other words, in any NNTP server theremay be as many as 1000 new posted messages per day. These posts may beviewable as a linear list of 1000 entries.

Using SIML, such a number of new posts may be reflected as a list of,perhaps 20 series records, each representing perhaps 50 separate files.A user then may see a list of 20 lines as opposed to a list of 1000lines. A BSI then is an extension of MML that is an XML documentproviding rich meta description of the constructs of a series of relatedfiles. For example, if the series is a compilation of movie files (RARsegments) then the BSI can tell a user if there are any missing RARsegments. The BSI may tell a user if there are thumbnail pictures forpreviewing before downloading segments. The BSI may tell a user that itis best to preview certain thumbnails before marking an entire seriesfor download.

In an NNTP environment, MTD may be used to describe the kind of contentthat should belong to a particular news group. A service for validationof content type can easily be provided that uses the markup to determinewhich content is appropriate and which is not at the server level,newsgroup level or even at an SGDL level. More detail about SIML as usedin an NNTP environment will be provided later in this specification.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating various components and layers ofclient software 1408 of FIG. 14 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. As was described with reference to FIG. 1, SW 1408may be provided as a temporary download to be used in collaboration inconjunction with a service-hosted group or other structured orsemi-structured groups of collaborators where SIML is used to facilitatecollaboration. In one embodiment of the invention, client 1408 includesan SIML layer 1600, an SIP layer 1604, a control panel 1608, and atransport adapter 1613. In this embodiment, client 1408 may take theform of an application template wherein some of or all of the componentsare present depending on the particular use of a group. In oneembodiment client 1408 may be a plug-in sent as a temporary containerthat is adapted to contain and utilize various SIML constructs inconjunction with certain media types and transport protocols.

SIML layer 1600 contains all of the required SIML language constructs1603 for practicing the present invention such as SGDL, MML, IML, andBSI support, if applicable, for describing the group's capabilities,allowed media and content types including series description support,identity applications and so on. It is noted herein that client 1408will have varying or differing language constructs 1603 according tospecific application need. For example, if the client is dedicated forP2P collaboration and does not involve Usenet or NNTP then BSI supportmay not be provided. Alternatively. It may be provided but not enabled.

Layer 1600 includes, in this example, project semantics 1602. Projectsemantics include any XML namespaces or terms that may be needed todescribed specific subject matter terms that are repeatedly used orreferred to in SIML message propagation between clients. Projectsemantics 1602 may, in one embodiment, include one or more templates,which are described in XML, but which may contain normal text whereappropriate. For example, a collaborative group may be thrown togetherfor a project of designing a bridge. Certain terms, proper names,equipment types, and so on may be created in XML for use by SIML whereadditional input text such as in an XML template presented as anelectronic form may be propagated.

SIP layer 1604 as a messaging support module 1605 provided therein andadapted to provide specific messaging support called for by SIPprotocols for an SGDL application. Module 1605 may provide support forIM, POP, SMTP, IAMP, and so on. The exact protocols supported formessaging depend on the rules for the group, if there are any specificto messaging applications allowed in SIML collaboration. In anembodiment where software client 1408 is a download that is specific toa social interaction group collaborating on a project, then module 1605contain only the messaging support called for as part of SGDL and SIPprotocols.

SIP layer 1604 has a directory support module 1606 provided therein andadapted provide directory support, for example, UDDI and LDAP. In oneembodiment of the present invention directory support module 1606provide support for an IOM white list directory listing all of theapproved or current participants of the social interaction group by mostprevalent identity such as e-mail for example. In this example, SIPlayer 1604 has a service package 1607 provided therein and adapted toprovide service over transport protocols such as an NNTP, RSS, FTP,HTTP, WAP, and other prevalent protocols. Service package 1607 isanalogous to social interaction services.

Using the previous example of NNTP, it is clear that the SIP actions(user actions for communication) would be publish and subscribe inconjunction with posting messages that are posted in SIML anddisseminating those messages identified as SIML messages and identifiedas SIML messages of a particular group. Therefore, in anotherenvironment such as email using POP and SMTP, the emails and attachmentsare described using SIML and are identified as SIML and associated to asocial interaction group. POP and SMTP support then would allow thoseexisting software applications to manage SIML emails separately fromother emails using the same server, the emails downloaded by the sameclient. Further, a convention similar to BSI for NNTP may be providedfor POP and SMTP to enable a user to manipulate emails and theirattachments in a way separated from other standard email messages inorder to sample and disseminate. To the host server and transport layer,the SIML emails are just email messages no different from any other.However to client software 1408, those SIML emails and attachmentsummaries are visible and the client may leverage information providedin the rich description for workflow purposes.

In an example where a user needs to find an SIML user, directory supportmodule 1606 provides a capability for filtering out the SIML identitiesand groups listed in those directory servers. In one embodiment suchSIML search services, classified under SIS can be provided by a hostsystem instead of just locally on a client machine. In this way, apowerful proxy may be provided and used to find any SIML content listedin a variety of servers. More detail about searching for SIML contentwill be provided later in this specification.

In this example, SW 1408 has a control panel 1608 provided thereto andadapted to enable certain functions enabled by certain userconfiguration input. Control panel 1608 may have a displayable userconfiguration interface 1612 provided thereto to enable a newcollaborator to, for example, specify the preferred types of installedapplications he or she wishes to collaborate with. A services manager1611 may be provided to manage the SIS services that a particular clientis capable of or is configured to receive. Services manager 1611 enablesthe client's communication stack to accept SIML instructions forcommunicating using SIML generation, termed task building, by theinventor.

An identity manager 1610 enables a user to work with his or herpreferred identities and to accept or reject other identities ofcollaborators that are also part of the group. For example, a use maywant his or her identity bridgebuilder@123.net to be used asidentification for all of his or her SIML emails generated or receivedduring group collaboration and also the same identity for any SIMLposting or downloading with respect to NNTP. Further, depending on hisor her position and task description in relation to the rest of thegroup, there may be a certain workflow in place where he or she receivesinformation from only certain ones of the group and passes theinformation after editing to only certain others of the group. Identitymanager 1610 may be used with an identity firewall analogous to firewallapplication 119 with all of its functionality. In this way groupcollaborators may be structured in participation according to adesirable workflow managed by identity and zone rules. It is notedherein that identities used may be temporary email accounts establishedand used solely for SIML-based social interaction.

A system monitor 1609 is provided in control panel 1608 and is adaptedto identify all of a user's installed applications for communication,messaging, and word processing. Monitor 1609, upon download andinstallation, may scan an operating system to identify and link toexisting communications applications and other applications that may beused in collaboration such as word processing applications, subjectpresentation applications, graphics editing applications, and so on.

In a highly structured collaboration environment, the group may haveparticipants that prefer to use varied applications for working in asame document. To cite an example, one collaborator may be trained inand may prefer Corel Word Perfect™ while another may be trained in andprefer Microsoft Word™. MML may therefore include instructions fordocument conversion for certain individuals and SW 1408 may be enhancedwith certain conversion plug-ins if required to complete documentconversions.

In a preferred embodiment, the instructions may be implemented on thesend or posting side of communications and a proxy service can beleveraged to perform the conversion services. In another embodiment, theconversion capabilities are included with the client applications. Thereare many possibilities. Using MML to describe document and applicationcapabilities and preferences may include instruction sets for taskbuilding such as download document, open document, convert document,display document. Participants of a social interaction group maycollaborate using varied media types and display mechanisms. MML and SIPmay include custom task preferences such as displaying a presentation,typically posted for download to a desktop, on a selected Web site usingHTTP and HTML.

In one embodiment, SW 1408 does not depend on a parent application, butrather cooperates in communication with other client instances involvedin a loose social group such as an evolving group of binary collectorsusing one or more binary news groups under NNTP transport protocol. Asclient readers and collectors are enhanced with SIML, they may begin tofavor dissemination of SIML content in a particular news server becauseof the rich descriptive summaries provided to help organize content andthat facilitate certain rich sampling functions.

SW 1408 has a transport adapter layer 1613 provided therein and adaptedto provide SIP and interface mechanisms for embedding SIML content intothe prevailing or chosen transport protocol in a seamless manner.Transport protocols such as NNTP require certain limitations for thesize of a message posted to a news server for example. Therefore, partof SIP for NNTP includes language instruction for posting messages that,because of the dynamic nature of the language generation andimplementation, eliminates much manual work involved in series creationand posting task management. More detail about posting and disseminatingSIML content is provided later in this specification.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram 1700 illustrating integration of socialinteraction services and protocols into an existing network modelaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Illustrated in thisexample is a standard open systems integration (OSI) reference model1701 that lists the standard 7 functional layers that control networkcommunication. The separate layers are well known and documented in theart and therefore shall not be described in great detail individually.Model 1701, from bottom up includes a physical layer and a data linklayer that defines equipment, line connections, interfaces, and lowerlevel machine-to-machine interaction.

The network layer and transport layer control the network protocols andtransport protocols used to carry data. The session layer, presentationlayer, and application layer define the higher-level services andprotocols used to conduct networking sessions and applications.

OSI model 1701 is compared in this example, directly to a standardTCP/IP reference communication stack 1702 that comprises essentially 4network layers. These are from bottom up, a network interface layer thatincorporates the first two layers of the OSI model; an Internet layerthat incorporates the functions of the network layer for Internetcommunication; a transport layer equating to the transport layer of theOSI model; and an application layer that incorporates the functionalityof the three top layers described in OSI model 1701. Therefore, theapplication layer of stack 1702 handles session management, presentationmanagement, and application management.

The application layer of TCP/IP reference stack 1702 further broken downthe right as application layer 1703. In a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, social interaction services are embedded inapplication layer 1703. Reading from bottom to top, application layer1703 functions to provide identity recognition and session management;data translation and data encryption; flow control; applicationprotocols and network/services/access protocols. In a preferredembodiment, social interaction services/protocols (embedded SIS) 1704are embedded essentially on top of the application layer.

FIG. 18A is an exemplary screenshot 1800 illustrating a binary postinginterface according to an embodiment of the present invention. Accordingto one embodiment of the present invention, SIML is practiced inconjunction with binary posting over NNTP. In this example, screenshot1800 represents a binary posting application, also termed a Agent Posterby the inventor.

In one embodiment of the present invention, screenshot 1800 is adisplayable user-interface that is part of software 1408 described withreference to FIG. 14 above. Screenshot 1800 displays an array ofdrop-down menus 1803 that may be considered standard options for anyposting application. These are file, edit, view, post, options, andhelp.

Screenshot 1800 has two main scrollable windows (scroll bars notillustrated), a window 1801 and a window 1802, which are adapted to showstatus of posting operations being conducted. More particularly, window1801 illustrates current posting status of several binary series. Window1802 illustrates a more detailed view of specific elements of one of theseries listed in window 1801 showing the current status of each elementrelated to the act of posting.

Screen shot 1800 also has a scrollable navigation window 1804 providedand adapted to display a user's zones and series elements available forviewing or posting (1805). Tree 1805 may, for example, display a zonespecifically dedicated to posting and collecting binary series elements.In this example, tree 1805 shows a folder school.history, sports.hockey,travel.mexico, and travel.spain. The exemplary titles are not relevantto the present invention, but illustrate just one example of how serieselements may be organized for posting, viewing, re-posting, and so on.The numbers to the right of he titles may express a number of series(groups of files comprising a series), or a number of series elementscomprising a series, which in this case would be reflected in thetitles. For example, school.history may be a series having 14 serieselements. Likewise, school.history may be a zone containing 14 differentseries, each containing one or more series elements.

Window 1804 is also adapted in this example to display one or more lists1806 of posting destinations (server addresses for posting). There are 2displayed lists in this example, sportscrosspost list containing 2servers, and travel crosspost containing 17 servers. In one embodimentzones in tree 1805 represent social interaction groups that a clientbelongs to or participates with and the numbers to the right of eachlisted group reflect the number of binary series either created ordownloaded and stored for that group.

Window 1804 also displays a posting outbox 1807 that illustrates a totalof 25 queued elements waiting for posting. Although not illustrated inthis example, an inbox may also be accessible from window 1804. Such aninbox may be a zone inbox similar to that described further above withreference to Ser. No. 10/765,338 listed in cross-reference.

In this example, selecting a series for posting adds the series to anoutbox and causes current visibility of the selected series in window1801. In this case posting is automatic once all of the properattributes have been entered as will be shown further below. Window 1804may be thought of as an explorer pane with which to locate and selectseries for posting. Window 1801 may be thought of as a series pane andwindow 1802 may be thought of as a file pane.

Tool icons 1808 may be provided in the toolbar for user conveniencewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.For example, icons 1808 include a task initiation icon (T); a startbutton; a stop button; and a tools button. Window 1801 has a title bar1809 provided thereto and adapted to organize each series attribute forviewing and manipulation. In the first column under status are theresult status indications of complete, failed, active, queued, anddelayed. In a second column to the right, are the series names that havebeen posted or are in the process. In a next column to the right, thenumber of elements (files) of each series is illustrated. For example,for the series “Orosco in Guadalahara” the posting status is completeand there are three series elements posted. The 0 reflects that thereare no files left to post/and the 3 is the total number of files thatcomprise the series. It is noted herein that a series index (BSI) is oneof the elements to be posted for each series so a series containing 4files may comprise one BSI and three jpegs.

A next column to the right described the total size of all of the filesin a series. A next column to the right shows estimated time left tocomplete a post. A next column to the right lists the primary postingtarget server or servers. The last column to the right provides theidentification of the poster or user posting the series.

In one embodiment in order to view activity of a particular series withrelation to its individual elements, a user simply selects one of theseries listed in window 1801 to display the related details in window1802. In this particular example, the user has selected the series“Teatros of Jalisco” for the purpose of viewing more detail.

In window 1802 there are columns provided for showing status results.The first column to the left illustrates the current posting result ofeach series element of the series selected for view in window 1801. Anext column to the right illustrates the file name for each serieselement. A next column to the right illustrates the current status offile parts or element parts posted and the total number of partscomprising one series element or file. A next column to the rightprovides a size indication of the total size of the file. A final columnillustrates the estimated time left for a file or series element tocompletely post.

In this example, the series index, or BSI of Teatros of Jalisco iscompletely posted, has only one file part of size 0.1 megabyte with notime left to post. A next file or series element is the first picture ofthe series, “Guadalahara.jpg” and is completely posted, 0 of 12 partsleft to post. The file is 1.2M with 0 time left to post. The nextpicture of the series is also completely posted. The third picture ofthe series, “Don Quixote.jpg.” is actively being posted and has threeparts of 7 parts left to post. The total file size is 0.7M and there isan estimated 33 seconds left before all parts of the file post. Theremaining files listed in window 1802 are queued for posting.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the task of describing aseries for rich sampling and enhanced dissemination is performed in amostly automated fashion using SIML. Attributes that are readilyavailable such as file size, resolution factor, pixel count, number offiles, and so on are automatically described in the BSI, which may becompletely expressed in MML constructs. A client may perform additionaldescription and may also provide instruction to potential collectorsusing an MML generation tool that may be adapted to convert typed textinto XML-based mark-up. For example, a user identity can be typed in andthen expressed in identity markup language (IML). Instructions orsuggestions such as sample files 3, 7, and 8 in the series beforedeciding to download the series may be typed and generated as part ofthe BSI index. A SIML-enhanced reader or collector application mayautomatically interpret the mark-up and as part of thumbnailpresentation protocol, may display only the suggested thumbs for reviewto a client that may be sampling the series.

In a preferred embodiment additional markup is provided which may beused within a BSI such as a classification markup that can identifywhich portions of a series are for containing information, for exampleNFO files; content sampling, for example, proofsheets, thumbnails, ormovie trailers; content (actual picture or movie content); and forutilities like part recovery and checksum data. Also in a preferredembodiment, identity of author and author-inserted information (identitydescription language-IDL) may provide author identity, copyright notice,and reference or direct lining to a micro-payment system or some othersecurity-enhanced payment system or method for enabling users of contentto pay appropriately for the content.

Much of the SIML may be transparent to the client including functionalmark-up instruction for launching a particular viewer installed on aclient's system. In one embodiment, viewer plug-ins or even SIMLinterpreters may be provided as part of a series wherein the BSIcontains the instructions and location of the plug-in viewer componentthat may be downloaded and then used to sample or view the rest of theSIML series.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that any particularnews server may contain standard NNTP messages along with SIML messages.In a preferred embodiment, the provision of rich meta description andenhanced sampling features provided for those who practice SIMLcollection will cause a migration of those client's formerly usingnon-SIML enhanced software to embrace SIML capabilities. Using anSIML-enhanced poster, a client may use mostly drag and drop techniquesto post binary series and have most if not all of the BSI automaticallygenerated. The messages post using the same NNTP protocols that handleprior-art posting.

In a preferred embodiment, an SIML-enhanced collector or reader may,very quickly, download all of the BSI indexes for any new series thathave been posted since the last time the user has logged into theserver. Because the BSI is an XML document in a preferred embodiment,the collector can use the XML-BSI indexes to quickly locate and samplefiles that have been richly described. Likewise, a client may architectvarious content filters, which when applied will filter the BSI markupfor the preferred constraints of the client such as subject matter,resolution, missing parts conditions, identity of author, and the like.

FIG. 18B is an exemplary screenshot 1811 illustrating a postingconfiguration interface according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Screen shot 1811 is a properties configuration screen that,in a preferred embodiment ay be accessed from screen 1800 of FIG. 18A.Screen 1811 illustrates a number of selectable options presented withina scrollable window or explorer pane 1813 illustrated at left in thescreen. Screen 1811 also has a main work area window 1812. Thecomponents listed in window 1813, which have configurable properties,are zones, series, identity, style, schedule, and index. All of thejust-described components must be defined in order to post a successfulseries. The XML constructs including task wrappers and protocolextensions are generated immediately after a user selects the requiredattributes and conditions for a post transaction.

The first component zones is highlighted in this example (dottedrectangle) and defines, in this case, user-defined segregated zones asdescribed with reference to Ser. No. 10/765,338 listed in thecross-reference section of this specification. In this embodiment ofNNTP posting, the zones may indicate genres of binary activity. Eachzone may have a separate identity that is attributed to the zone owner.In one embodiment there is a primary posting target by defaultassociated with each zone, or the target most used for posting filesfrom a particular zone. However a user may change default status ofposting targets and may configure a list of targets as a default targetas well.

In configuring a post from a neutral point (not already operating from azone) or from another zone the client wishes to switch from, a clientmay select a zone (to post from) from a drop-down menu 1814. In oneembodiment, a drop down menu such as 1814 may not list all zones, butonly zones that the client commonly uses during posting and collectingactivities and thus are visible in menu 1814. An interactive buttonlabeled Zones . . . to the right of menu 1814 may be invoked to open ascrollable window 1816 adapted to list all or a client's establishedzones. A client may, in one embodiment, select a zone from the largerlist. In a typical application, the particular binary files a userwishes to post are accessible only from the selected zone unless theyare shared over more than one zone. In this case, the client hasselected a zone xyxy.travel.mexico.

In one embodiment, a zone may be indicative of a social interactiongroup that the user is a member of or otherwise participating in. Inthis example, a client operating from the zone xyxy.travel.mexico isgoing to post a series from that zone. In one case, the primary clientidentity (zone identity) may be, by default of operating from within thezone, used as the posting identity. In another embodiment, the clientmay have other identities associated with the zone that may be permanentor temporary identities. A client may also obtain a new identity fro usein a zone if desired.

A drop-down menu 1815 is provided within screen 1812 and containscross-posting destination options. In this case the user may selectcross-posting functionality by marking the interactive field next to ando the left of menu 1815. Similar to menu 1814 above, a interactive iconlabeled Lists . . . is provided next to and to the right of menu 1815,which is adapted in a preferred embodiment to display all of thecross-posting destinations available in a scrollable window 1817. Inthis case, there are 2 available cross-posting targets. These are sportscrosspost and travel crosspost. Therefore, travelcrosspost may either beselected by the user from list 1817 or it may appear as a defaulttarget. In one embodiment, an additional toggle (not illustrated) may beprovided to enable a user to select “cross posting or normal posting.

In one embodiment of the present invention, zones may be hosted by athird-party service provider such as zone host 1100 described withreference to FIG. 11 of Ser. No. 10/765,338. In this embodiment, aclient may be part of a group that shares a single zone educated tofacilitating all messaging and other communications activity conductedby group participants. In the case of posting and subscribing however,group participants are typically configured to directly connect to theappropriate news servers and may bypass any proxy unless third-partyservices are subscribed to by any of the participants.

It is noted herein that it is not specifically required that a clientpost and collect binaries from identity managed zones like thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 2 of Ser. No. 10/765,338 in order tosuccessfully practice posting and collecting using SIML. However, theidentity-managed zone architecture provides a more feasible, reliableand secure way to practice posting and collecting using SIML. Forexample, a client attempting to post a series in error ma be notified bythe zone manager or firewall application that content, identity, orother attributes are not appropriate for the current zone the client isoperating from and may suggest the appropriate zone from which to postor to download to. XML-based constructs may be used to direct internalzone management and identity filtering so that even a client novice tothe world of binary posting can operate with efficiency in an error freemanner.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that screen 1811 mayhave a different architecture or layout than the specific exampleillustrates without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. The arrangement of the windows, format of data displayed andlocation of the described icons is exemplary only.

FIG. 18C is an exemplary screenshot 1818 illustrating contents of abinary post assembled for posting according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Screen 1818 is displayed through interaction withscreen 1811 of FIG. 18B by selecting series. Window 1813 is common toboth screens 1811 and 1818. In this example a client has selected seriesshown highlighted in window 1813 to view series properties. Any binaryseries may be assembled from scratch or edited in the case of anexisting series through interaction from screen 1818. Screen 1818 has amain work window 1819. Work window 1819 has a title bar 1820 forinputting the name of a new series or the name of an existing seriesthat was previously posted. In this case the current series displayed is“Teatros of Jalisco” accessible from the zone xyxy.travel.mexico. Workwindow 1819 has a scrollable window 1821 displayed thereon and adaptedto list al of the current files that make up the series for post. Inthis case there are 7 listed jpegs.

An array of interactive options 1823 is provided to enable a client toedit the elements of a series. For example, an option for adding one ormore series elements or files is provided. Selecting add from options1823 may cause the file or zones structure to appear in navigable formsuch that a client may navigate to a file location containing a file orfiles that may be added to the series by performing a drag and dropoperation from window to window. Likewise, there is an option in array1823 for removing one or more files from a series.

Option array 1823 has a properties option for drilling down to furtherdetail with respect to a series element. For example, a client mayselect an item from window 1821 and then hit the properties button tosee how many parts of each file were created. Other elements orattributes of a jpeg., for example, maybe viewable and, in some cases,editable through the properties option.

Option array 1823 has a launch option assuming every thing is enteredinto the configuration interface and the series is ready for posting. Anupload (UP) and download (DN) option is provided in option array 1823,selection of which depends upon the location of media files, or of acompleted series of files, perhaps for reposting. Media files may, inone embodiment be posted directly from a peripheral device such as adigital camera through a zone that supports the external connection andrecognizes the device storage drive containing the media files. In thiscase uploading files is appropriate. In another embodiment a client maywish to download a series located on another computer on a network forthe purpose of re-posting the series. In this case download isappropriate. A file or series import option may be provided in place ofthe option for download.

An array of action options 1822 is provided and is in this examplelocated under window 1821. Action options in array 1822 include Ok,Apply, Cancel, and Help. These options are self-explanatory. It is notedherein that a BSI is not illustrated as a series element in this examplebecause the BSI is generated, in a preferred embodiment, after all ofthe attributes and files are in place and accepted by the client.However, in an embodiment wherein an existing series will be edited ormodified and re-posted, a BSI may be displayed as an existing serieselement, which would be automatically updated when a client finalizesany changes.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that screen 1818 may bepresented in an alternate arrangement with respect to component locationwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thisexample follows that of the example of FIG. 18B and is consideredexemplary of one example screen. In one embodiment, a further scrollablewindow may be caused to replace window 1821 upon selecting one or moreelements from window 1821 and then selecting properties from optionarray 1823. This window may display the individual file parts and otherattributes such as the data weight of those parts and so on.

FIG. 18D is an exemplary screenshot 1824 illustrating identityconfiguration in conjunction with a post configuration according to anembodiment of the present invention. Screen 1824 like the other screenmentioned above has navigation window 1813 displayed. In this examplethe identity properties associated with a posting are accessed. Screen1824 has a work window 1825 containing various options for applying anidentity to a posting of a binary series. Work window 1825 has ascrollable list window 1826 that displays a list of available identitiesthat may be applicable to this particular posting. These identities arenews-group participant handles created for the purpose of letting othersknow in a non-ambiguous way, the author of the posting. An interactivebutton 1827 labeled Identities is provided and, in this case, located tothe right of window 1826. Button 1827, when activated may provideadditional identity selection options that may not be visible in listwindow 1826.

In one embodiment of the present invention, selecting button 1827 maylaunch an identity creation service provided by a third party, throughwhich new temporary identities may be established. Such as service isdescribed further above with reference to FIG. 4 of Ser. No. 10/765,338.If the posting is conducted from an identity-managed zone, then only theidentities approved for that zone may be available. An override option1828 is provided within work window 1825 and is adapted to enable aclient to override default identity options effectively enabling theclient to switch zones or post with a non-zone specific identity.

For each identity, an identity settings display 1829 is provided forlisting at least an email address that may be associated with a posting,the name or handle of the poster, and the organization or, in somecases, social interaction group identity that the client is posting to.If for example, the client is posting to a loosely formed group, thenidentification of the group may be defined including the content andother identities using SGDL. An identity-oriented (IOM) firewall mayprovide security for the poster if he or she belongs to many groups andposts from different zones posting different media content. Similar toidentity managed communication and messaging, identity managed postingand collecting is also practical.

Depending upon the level of structure and security defined for anysocial interaction group the participant has business with, identitiesmay be temporary, semi-permanent or permanent. For example, a permanentemail address is not required for posting to a news server. However, ifthe news server is being commandeered for collaboration by a securityregimented group, then permanent email may be appropriate depending onlevel of trust afforded to the other participants of the group. In thecase of a structured collaboration project, workflow may also play apart in which identities are chosen for posting and collecting and forany associated messaging. Identity settings 1829 may include additionalforms of identity specific to other media types or form of communicationincluding telephone number, IP address, IM identity, file sharing number(i.e. ICQ™) and others.

Identities may be analyzed and authenticated for a group of socialinteractors whether operating in a posting and collection model, amessaging model, or a fill collaboration model, by using, in addition toshared directory authentication, other trust metrics that may beconfigured as rules and incorporated into an SGDL application.Additional techniques may include use of Bayesian filtering or neuralnetwork analysis or even analysis of prior contact and/or activityhistories of an identity with any of the interactors of a group ofinteractors who is already trusted.

In some embodiments, “join” invitations may be automatically sent by a“hosted” SGDL application to an identity that may be considered forinclusion into an IML description of a social interaction group based onknowledge of informal interactions attributed to the identity withalready-trusted group interactors. Such knowledge may include knowledgeof skill set, quality reputation of work or product, reliability ofinterface capabilities, and so on. An application-decision to invite anidentity into a trusted group may entirely depend on a set of existingrules set up for the group that may determine whether an identityqualifies for group induction based loosely or strictly on what thatidentity may contribute to the group purpose and goals. For example, ifa loosely formed group of trusted and identified interactors is sharingbinaries of wildlife, and it is found through informal interactionhistory analysis, perhaps of email, that an identity from one of theinteractors email contact lists possesses many rare wildlife photos andis a member of National Geographic Magazine, then the SGDL applicationmay generate an email or IM invite to the identity to ask if he or shewishes to be a part of a group of trusted members that share wildlifebinaries and commentaries.

The level of structure and cooperation of interactors defined for asocial interaction group can vary widely and can evolve from looseorganization to more structured organization. Mechanisms such as shareddirectories, inboxes, hosted services, rules, identity firewall, as wellas access permissions to other communication-activity histories of groupmembers for recruiting new interactors into a group may be present toany degree or may not be present at all without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention.

FIG. 18E is an exemplary screenshot 1830 illustrating style mechanics ofposting according to an embodiment the present invention. Like the otherscreens described above, screen 1830 has navigation window 1813 andoption array 1822 displayed. In window 1813, the option style ishighlighted providing access to properties of posting style. Screen 1830has a work window 1831 that supports a variety of options for selectingthe posting style attributes of a series post. Work window 1831 has ascrollable list window 1832 that lists media style options for posting.For example, if a post has pictures then the option pictures would beautomatically selected for the file type (picture) of the serieselements. Similarly if the post is a movie that is large, then RARencoding would be used to break the file into smaller RAR segments. Ifthe posting is audio then the audio style is selected. Series elementsmay also be applications or text documents containing graphics withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It may bethat each style has some configurable properties such as, perhapscompression format for picture (bmp, jpeg. giff, html). Similarly foraudio, differing compression codecs may be applied such as mono 8-bit,stereo 32-bit, etc. These settings typically do not have to be changedfrom one media type style to another for binary posting because thesoftware automatically recognizes the files added to a series posting.However, finer settings generic to each media type such as mpeg vs. AVIor jpeg. vs. tiff can be manually changed as preferences for posting.

Immediately below settings window 1832, there is an option foroverriding the default style settings if a client wishes to constructspecial or custom settings for style (advanced users). An encodingoption array 1833 is provided for a client to select a type of encodingscheme from the choices Uuencode or yEnc, which are common encodingschemes for message encoding over NNTP. In this case the option for yEncis selected. The encoding dictates maximum lines per message, in thiscase 2000. There are content display fields that display the messagesize before and after encoding. In this case each posted message is 90KB before encoding and 130 KB after encoding using yEnc.

An option array 1834 is provided in workspace 1831. Option array 1834provides an option for posting a binary file index (BFI) with the series(one BFI for all messages of a series element), or an option for postinga multi-part BFI index (one index for each message posted immediatelybefore the message). By default using SIML, a single BSI isautomatically generated and posted that richly describes each message ofthe series and which messages indicate one series element such as apicture element. A BFI is, in one embodiment, an extension of a BSI andis also automatically generated. A BSI, for example, is posted as file 0of a series. A BFI for a series element is posted as section 0 of afile. A multipart BFI is posted one per message. If BFIs are posted theyare described or referenced in the BSI of the series.

Referring now back to navigation window 1813 there are two finaloptions, which may cause new windows to pop up. These are a schedulingoption used if a posting is to be performed according to a schedule asopposed to a “post now” option. An index option is provided for enablinga client to view, and perhaps, edit the XML-based index (BSI) for theposting. In one embodiment of the present invention, default propertypreferences may be configured for each binary media type to be postedsuch that future postings, by default, are posted according to theestablished preferences.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram 1900 illustrating a process of task loadingassociated with binary posting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, binaryposting application 1800 described above with reference to FIG. 18A hastwo primary components for enabling posting of a binary series. First,the application creates a task from XML information describing theelements of the task and loads the task into a task manager component,described later, that expands the task instruction and generates anddispatches the message index for NNTP message posting.

In this example, a series information file 1902 is generated as an XMLdocument and contains the name and file path of all of the files to beposted with the series. The poster also generates an XML document 1903describing all of the required user and system information required topost the series. A task building process assembles the XML into an XMLtask document that further includes the scheduling information for theposting, either post now or according to pre-defined schedule.

XML document 1903 contains the target news server, port, NNTP loginprotocol, user name and password for logging in. Document 1903 alsocontains the name of the news group hosting the posting, a user identityor post handle, email address of the poster, full name (handle) of theuser, the posting style identification, including the maximum lines permessage, the message format, and the method for posting the seriesindex. The document includes profile identification (media type), thestyle (encoding scheme) each file identity (photo, movie segment, etc.)and a list of newsgroups to also receive the post if more than one, forexample in cross posting.

Task 1901, once assembled is ready for loading for posting by a taskloader/manager 1904. Task manager 1904 generates a single expanded XMLdocument 1904 containing all of the required information from 1902 and1903. A tracking file 1906 is generated for the purpose of trackingposting status for part of series elements and series elements as theyare queued for post and as they are successfully, or not successfullyposted. The tracking file is an XML document that may be displayed inreal time on a GUI. Task manager 1904 also produces a history log file1907 for the purpose of documenting the content and status of a post asit is initiated and progresses.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the XML examplesin files represented in this example may not show the actual namespacesassociated with data or all of the XML line data. This is due toconstraints in drawing space. An example of such XML-based filesgenerated and manipulated for posting is reproduced below.

General Preferences (User and System Information)

AP defines user and system information using an XML document. Itincludes the news server, newsgroups, identities (email addresses), andstyle (message formatting and size settings) that potentially are usedand reused for all postings. From this repository the user will select anewsgroup, identity and style when creating a posting task. There arefive elements that can be defined in the preferences file: newsserver,newsgroup, identity, style, and profiles. An exemplary user and systeminformation XML file is reproduced below:

<usersysteminfo>  <newsserver newsserver=“news.4ax.com” port=“119”  nntploginprotocol=“Simple” username=“poster”  password=“6EAB83AD475”/>  <newsgroup name=“alt.binaries.test,alt.binaries.test.yenc”/>  <identity id=“test”emailaddress=“test@mailinator.com”   fullname=“The Tester”/>  <identityid=“photo” emailaddress=“photo@mailinator.com”   fullname=“PhotoMaster”/>  <style id=“UU1000” maxlinespermessage=“1000”format=“UUEncoded”   seriesindex=“1” fileindex=“1”/>  <styleid=“YENC2010” maxlinespermessage=“2010” format=“yEnc”   seriesindex =“1”fileindex =“1”/>  <profile id=“photo” style=“UU1000” identity=“photo”,  newsgroups=“alt.binaries.test”/> </usersysteminfo>

The user system information file is the root element analogous to file1902 above, that contains all of the required user and systeminformation as described above and may contain no attributes. The newsserver element describes the news server or servers that are beingposted to, the port identification (119 for NNTP) and any log-ininformation required to forge a connection or connections.

The news group element describes the group or groups will be posted to.This value can include many different groups for a single posting. Newsgroups may be described in a list with each group separated by a comma,or if more than one, they may be described as separate elements n thefile as follows:

<newsgroup name=“alt.binaries.test”/> <newsgroupname=“alt.binaries.test.yenc”/>

The identity element fills the email from field that will be used whenposting. Defining identities makes it easy to switch between emailaddresses depending on how a client wishes to be viewed for each of hisor her postings.

-   <identity id=“test” emailaddress=“test@mailinator.com” fullname=“The    Tester”/> would be interpreted as The Tester test@mailinator.com.

The style element determines how the series is sent to a news server.Because news groups often have rules about content and rules about howmessages are posted, the style element, in a preferred embodiment,attempt to comply with the formats of each server. The style elementalso determines whether BFI indexing is used. For SIML posting, a BSI isgenerated by default.

An exemplary representation of a series document is reproduced below:

<series name=“Yosemite” path=“C:\DemoData”>   <file number=“1”name=“HalfDome.jpg”>   <file number=“2” name=“NevadaFalls.jpg”>   <filenumber=“3” name=“Valley.jpg”> </series>

An exemplary task document analogous to document 1901 is reproducedbelow:

<task action=“postnow”>   <series include=“c:\DemoData\Yosemite.xml”>  <newsgroup name=“alt.binaries.test”/>   <identityemailaddress=“photo@mailinator.com” fullname=“Photo Master”/>   <stylemaxlinespermessage=“1000” format=“UUEncoded” seriesindex=“1”fileindex=“1”/> </task>

The post action element attribute specifies what that task will do(either post now or post at a specified time). The series elementreferences the actual series document using an include attribute. It isthe file name where the series XML document (1902) can be found. Thenewsgroup, identity and style can be fully expanded or referenceelements by id that are defined in the usersysteminfo file analogous tofile 1903.

One with skill in the art will recognize that there are a number of waysto organize a posting task using XML without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention. For example, a profile may bespecified, in one embodiment, by referencing the id of a profile definedin the usersysteminfo document. The task will use all the attributes ofthat profile for posting. Alternatively, it is possible to specify anidentity, and style by id and those elements will be expanded. The orderof processing may be specified such that elements defined at the mostimmediate level may override included elements. For example, thenewsgroup element in <task> may override any newsgroup element specifiedin the series file yosemite.xml from the example above. This provides anenhancement for resolving any potential conflicts. The followingexamples exemplify the different possibilities described:

Task using profile <task action=“postnow”>   <seriesinclude=“c:\DemoData\Yosemite.xml”>   <profile id=“photo”/> </task> Taskwith identity and style specified as an id <task action=“postnow”>  <series include=“c:\DemoData\Yosemite.xml”>   <identity id=“photo”/>  <newsgroup name=“alt.binaries.test”/>   <style id=“UU1000”/> </task>

Here's a detailed description of the task element and attributes.

<task>

Task is a root element that defines a AP task. The task element mustinclude a series element and some combination of elements that specifythe identity (only 1 allowed), newsgroup (can have multiple), and style(only 1 allowed) to use to post the series. The post action has twooptions, postnow-post at the next opportunity, and postat-post at aspecified time. If posting at a specified time, an ISO 8601(CCYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sss) is provided with the formatted date and timespecifying when the task should start.

When a task document analogous to task document 1901 is loaded forposting, the series and task information is expanded. More particularly,AP retrieves the series, the identity, and the style, and expands theseries XML document into a working series/task X document 1905. Thisdocument is equivalent to the series index. In a preferred embodiment,this is done so that changes to the general preferences will not affectseries as they are posted. Once a series is posted, the file orderingand division into sections becomes fixed. This is essential to ensurethat each part can be properly retrieved and reposted if necessary. Theexpanded task/series document 1905 is the document that AP uses forprocessing. It is equivalent to the series index that AP will post fornewsreaders to retrieve the series. This document represents a standardfor series processing. In a preferred embodiment, the format for thisdocument is intended to be a standard, able to be retrieved by anynewsreader; produced by any task/series builder and processed by anynews poster.

BSI

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a BSI is posted witha series in order to enhance series retrieval and file viewing. The<style> attribute seriesindex determines whether an index will be postedfor the series. The series index contains all the information necessaryto retrieve and repost the series. An SIML-enhanced newsreader canrecognize these BSI indexes and use the information contained therein toretrieve an individual file or section of a file.

In one embodiment, an expanded BSI may look like the following:

<series name=“Yosemite” path=”C:\DemoData”>  <identity id=“photo”/> <style maxlinespermessage=“1000” format=“UUEncoded”   seriesindex=“1”fileindex=“1”/>  <newsgroup name=”alt.binaries.test”/>  <filename=“HalfDome.jpg” number=“1”>   <section number=“0”messageid=”190e@4ax.com“    subject=“Yosemite [1/3] bfi - HalfDome.jpg(0/2)” />   <section number=“1” messageid=”430a@4ax.com”   subject=“Yosemite [1/3] - HalfDome.jpg (1/2)”/>   <section number=“2”messageid=9d22@4ax.com    subject=“Yosemite [1/3] - HalfDome.jpg(2/2)”/>  </file>  <file name=“NevadaFalls.jpg” number=“2”>   <sectionnumber=“0” messageid=a4ce@4ax.com    subject=“Yosemite [2/3] bfi -NevadaFalls.jpg (0/1)”/>   <section number=“1” messageid=“8536@4ax.com”   subject=“Yosemite [2/3] - NevadaFalls.jpg (1/1)”/>  </file>  <filename=“Valley.jpg” number=“3”>   <section number=“0”messageid=“8e17@4ax.com”    subject=“Yosemite [3/3] bfi - Valley.jpg(0/2)” />   <section number=“1” messageid=”87f1@4ax.com”   subject=“Yosemite [3/3] - Valley.jpg (1/2)”/>   <section number=“2”messageid=“84a3@4ax.com”    subject=“Yosemite [3/3] - Valley.jpg(2/2)”/>  </file>  <index PostAsAttachment=“1”>   <section number=“1”messageid=“839c@4ax.com”    subject=“Yosemite [0/3] bsi - index.bsi(1/1)”/>  </index> </series>

In this example, the file includes the identity, style and newsgroupspecified by the task document. In addition, the file sections have eachbeen identified. The BSI further includes the style information toensure file sections are reposted as they were originally posted.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram 2000 illustrating a process of dispatching apost according to an embodiment of the present invention. In thisexample, document 1905 produced by the task loader or builder describedwith reference to FIG. 19 above is published to one or more news groupsof a server or servers by a task manager dispatch server 2002. A largefile must be broken up into messages when posted because of news serverrestrictions on file size. In a BSI, the sections required for eachseries file are defined; including the message-id used when it is postedand the subject. The subject is also provides another way to identify amessage. The format for the subject is very specific. It is always theseries name followed by the file specification expressed in the format[1/3] optionally followed by any series encoding indicators, followed bya dash then followed by the filename and the file section specification(1/2), and optionally followed by file encoding information (Uuencode,yEnc). File and section numbers starts at 1. BSI and BFI files numbered0 are used for informational purposes, such as indexing. A basic syntaxis as follows:

-   seriesname [x/y]-filename (n/m)    For example,-   Yosemite [1/3]-HalfDome.jpg (1/2)-   Yosemite [0/3]bsi-yosemite.bsi (1/1)

This is the series index for the Yosemite series, it is posted as file 0in the set of 3 files (the 0 file is used to represent information aboutthe series, but is not part of the series directly). The name of thebinary series index file is yosemite.bsi and this message is the firstsection of 1 total section. The bsi indicator designates that themessage contains the binary series index.

In one embodiment of the invention, a series index or BSI may be postedto a group separate from the one files are posted to. In this embodimentthe BSI may contain a newsgroup sub-element reference. This may bepracticed if a newsgroup has a special sub-group that may be reservedfor BSI posting. In theory, the sub-group could contain all of theseries BSIs and the main group could contain all of the binary files.This serves as one possible example that may allow quick sampling ofbinaries without requiring download of all of the headers.

If a BFI (binary file index) is used the syntax may be expressed asYosemite [1/3]bfi-HalfDome.jpg (0/2). This is the file index for thefirst file in the Yosemite series. The file itself, from an exampleabove is called HalfDome.jpg, the BFI does not have a separate namesince it is attached to the actual binary file by naming convention. Thebinary file (HalfDome.jpg) because of its size is broken into 2 filesections. The BFI message is section 1.

In a preferred embodiment, dispatch server 2002 breaks up the post intoseveral messages 2001 (a-n). Depending on the content and encodingscheme, there ay be any number of messages posted that collectivelyrepresent a binary series. Each message contains at least a fromidentifier, a newsgroup identifier, the series name, date and time ofpost, a message identifier, and the message data.

Dispatch server 2002 in the act of posting, continually updates statusfile 1906 and history file 1907. A client may view active status of oneor more than one posting action. The BSI of a series makes re-posting aseries much more efficient over current art practice.

Each file of a series may, if desired, contain a BFI, which may be anextension of the series BSI. This is not specifically required topractice the present invention but may be implemented for quickidentification of multiple sections making up a single series element orfile. However, a single BSI may serve the same purpose.

As posting is underway, the AP actively marks the sections that aresuccessfully posted and updates the information to file 1906. A currentstatus XML may look like:

<status include=“c:\DemoData\Yosemite.xml” state=“Posting”>  <filenumber=“1” state=“Completed” r     result=“240 article queued forposting”     datetime=“2004-03-03T17:31:47.625” sectionstate=“CCC”/> <file number=“2” state=“Posting” sectionstate =“PQ” />  <filenumber=“3” state=“Queued” sectionstate =“QQQ”/>  <index state=“Queued”sectionstate =“NQ”/> </series>

History logging is also performed by AP to record posting activityresults including news server responses and errors. An updated historyfile 1907 may look like:

<history include=“c:\DemoData\Yosemite.xml”/> <post file=“1” section=“0”datetime=“2004-03-03T17:31:47”   messageid=“ b4ee@4ax.com”  subject=“Yosemite [1/3] - HalfDome.jpg (0/2)”   result=“240 articlequeued for posting”/> <post file=“1” section=“1”datetime=“2004-03-03T17:31:48”   messageid=”bb20@4ax.com”  subject=“Yosemite [1/3] - HalfDome.jpg (1/2)”   result=“240 articlequeued for posting”/> <post file=“1” section=“2”datetime=“2004-03-03T17:31:49”   messageid=“9d22@4ax.com”  subject=“Yosemite [1/3] - HalfDome.jpg (2/2)”   result=“240 articlequeued for posting”/> </history>

FIG. 21 is an exemplary screenshot 2100 illustrating a reader/collectorclient interface according to one embodiment of the present invention.Screen 2100 may be provided in a graphics form that uses or borrowsInternet browser function, look, and feel. Therefore, an address bar isillustrated in this example as well as generic pull down menus andgeneric browser icons that normally grace a browser interface.

In one embodiment of the present invention, there are two separate, butintegrated interfaces, one for news reading and other communications,and one for binary collecting. However in this example, both regimenscan be practiced through a same interface by switching modes from readerto collector and back.

It is important to note herein that interface 2100 encompasses all ofthe functions described in conjunction with the agent reader describedwith reference to Ser. No. 10/765,338 and is further enhanced in thisembodiment with the ability to sample binaries using SIML interpretationof XML-based BSIs. Screen 2100 is also enhanced to link to third partySIS services for aid in quickly finding and disseminating target binaryseries, collaboration projects, and for identifying loosely formedsocial interaction groups, at least from NNTP news servers.

In one embodiment, screen 2100 has an explorer type navigation window2101 provided thereto and adapted to display a hierarchical navigationtree 2110 of a client's work zones, labeled My Zones. Each zone maycontain at least one inbox (IB) and one or more folders (F) for storingcontent such as news, binaries, and so on. As was described withreference to Ser. No. 10/765,338, a client may operate from within azone that is firewall protected and segregated from other zones. Forexample, if a user navigates to and selects a pet zone then all of hisor her collected pet-related content, subscriptions, identities andcontacts are visible and the user may practice communications throughthat zone having access to zone approved contacts and identities.

Screen 2100 has a top viewing window 2102 provided thereon and a lowerviewing pane 2103 provided thereon. Window 2102 is adapted to providecurrent results resulting from an SIML content search as might beenabled from within the application when connected to a particular newsserver, or as may be provide through a third party service proxy adaptedto search for SIML content from a number of designated servers on behalfof a client. A search function 2107 is provided within window 2102 andis adapted to enable user input in the form of keyword search criteriasuch as, for example, series+jpeg+pets. Results may be displayed inwindow 2102 in a variety of formats without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment the results are a summary 2106 of what is found withinan NNTP server (NNTPXX.XXX) listed as containing 10 active groupsrelated to pets that allow posting of binary series. The summarymentions that two of the groups are new to the server since the lasttime the client logged into that server or since the last search actionperformed for that server. Windows 2102 and 2103 are scrollable and maylist more search results than are viewable within the immediate windowareas.

The summary 2106 has a details button located under the server and groupinformation. Selecting the details button may provide more granulardetails such as those listed in window 2103. Of the 10 active groups, atleast one of those groups listed, Alt.binary.pets, has 4 new seriesposted, two of which are designated as private only for certainparticipants that, perhaps form a loose social interaction group thathas focused only on certain pet series types. Using SIML, a client mayfind those other posters and consumers that are also using SIML.Likewise, BSIs may be searched to determine if there are any new updatesin the server that match the client's input search criteria. In oneembodiment a client may elect to view all SIML content in a serverwithout using any specific search terms.

Summary information 2106 shows further that in the group Alt.Binary.pets there are two series access invitations (SIP action invite)for the two private series of the 4 listed new postings. Therefore, theclient may access all 4 of the series posted, two of which are publicand require no log-in or authentication and two of which are private andmay require the client to log-in providing a password to sample or todownload the series. A message block 2107 is illustrated within window2102 and is adapted to display messages found in BSI or BFIdescriptions. In this case, the message tells the client that he or sheis listed by a poster identified as (D.L.), as a collaborator for one ofthe new private series identified as series XYZ. A client may quicklyfind and posting that references the client identity in a BSI or BFIdescription.

A poster may identify other SIML users by identifying those users byhandle. The identities are expressed in the form of IML. Any readercapable of interpreting SIML can browse BSIs and detect if his or heridentity is included in the BSI of a series or even in a BFI for aseries element. In this way a loosely formed collaboration group maycollaborate on a number of posted series wherein series elements of aseries are designated for certain identities and certain other serieselements are designated for certain other identities. Moreover, usingAP, a poster may set up notifications to notify collaborators of newposts using channel other than NNTP such as IM, email, RSS, or evenvoice alerts over IP.

A navigation block 2111 in provided, in this embodiment, withinnavigation window 2101 and is adapted to enable a client, while incollection mode, to browse BSIs, post comments related to any sampledcontent, and to view summary descriptions and thumbnails of a series.Additional interactive choices include View (display) and D-Load(download) content.

As a result of client input, a series listed in window 2102 is beingviewed or sampled in window 2103. This may be accomplished fromnavigation window 2101 using block 2111, or by simply clicking on aDetails option provided under the news group name or next to a seriesindication, or by expanding a tree control in block 2101 or 2102. For aseries sampling, a text display block 2104 is provided for presentingtext description of the series elements. Block 2104 contains naturaltext rendered from XML using and XML style sheet. A thumbnail reviewblock 2105 is similarly provided in window 2103 and is adapted todisplay the thumbnails in order of BSI description, enabling the clientto review any of those before deciding to download the associated jpegsin the series.

Other pertinent information is also made available to the clientsampling a series such as the time and date of the original posting ofthe series, and the number of current accesses made to the series. In avery large series, a client may browse series thumbnails withoutaccessing every one. For example, a client may review every third orevery fifth thumbnail to reduce scrolling requirements. A save-as buttonis provided within window 2103 and is adapted to enable a client to savea sampling without fully reviewing it so that the item may be reviewedlater off-line, or whenever desired.

An interactive button labeled Private is provided within window 2103 andmay be adapted according to one embodiment, for causing display of justthe posted series that are private in nature and require someauthentication for sampling and download. A client may view all privateseries listed, or just those that list the client as an approvedcollaborator. A Sync List option button is provided within window 2103and is adapted to enable a client to synchronize his or her list ofapproved identities for an SIML group or project with a most currentlist of identities that may be provided in a BSI of a new posting. Inthis way, as a social interaction group grows in number, every clientthat is a part of that activity can have access to all of the othermembers input and comments.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the collectorcomponent of application 2100 re-uses the binary series indexes andseries file indexes, if available, as a unique SIML indexing mechanismfor organizing all of a client's downloaded binaries for quick samplingand access. As a client's binary collection grows, he or she may use thecollector mode to sample his or her own collection for series to re-postor to simply view the binaries stored. In one embodiment the collectorcomponent of application 2100 may contain an optimizer mechanism (notillustrated) for incorporating or merging many XML documents into asingle BSI, which describes a user's entire collection or a socialgroup's collection such as all the songs by an artist or all theepisodes of a television series, including different versions of a sameseries or element. Such a merged BSI may comprise partially of indexinformation downloaded and compared with existing information previouslydownloaded for redundancy, and new information created automaticallythrough addition to the collection from a local file or folder. A clientmay also, in one embodiment, manually script to a BSI index describinghis or her local collection of binaries.

In one embodiment a local BSI for describing a user collection ofbinaries may also be optimized to provide filtering for identity andcontent wherein if a user downloads a BSI describing a series and theBSI information already exists in the local or collector BSI then itwould be understood that the material is already in the user collection.Filtering for identity may also be employed from the point of a user'scollection by way of dissemination of the authors for example from thecollection BSI and enabling sampling of new content only of thoseparticular authors or a selected portion thereof. The mechanism may beprovided as a client/server component within the collector component.

If a client uses the poster to re-post a binary then the collector canretrieve the binary series in the exact same format as originallyposted. If a client desires he or she may enter and modify the serieselements using the properties windows described with reference to FIGS.18A-E to make changes in elements, description, and so on. The BSI andBFI indexes for the new posting will automatically describe the newchanges or modifications to the series. A parser and XML generator ispart of client software and creates BSI and IML as a user creates thetext and selects appropriate identities for posting and so on.

An array of interactive links is provided below thumbnail block 2105 andis adapted to enable a client to link to or get certain components orinformation. These links, from left to right are Poster, Link, Identity,Get Reader, and Group ID #. The link Poster enables a client toimmediately switch from collecting or reading mode to posting mode. Inone embodiment the poster is a separate interface that can runalong-side the collector/reader interface 2100. In another embodimentthe poster, collector, and reader are all separate interfaces and thelink poster acts as a toggle between the three interfaces. In avariation to this embodiment, all three interfaces can be invoked to runin a same main window divided in workspace to accommodate all threecomponents.

The next option “Link” provides a convenient way to map to any navigablecomponent that may be displayed during collection or reading. Byselecting a text rendition of a URL or navigable identity parameter, theclient may launch a new window, for example, bring up a Web site or anew window of a communication application for calling, IM interaction,Chat interaction, email, and so on. The option Identity enables a clientto see a list of all applicable identities attributed to a posting or aseries element.

The option Get Reader may be used to call up the reader application. Iffor example, the client is working in collecting or posting mode. Theoption for Group ID# enables a client to identify social interactiongroups by identity number for the purpose of sampling group content.

In addition to the described options drop-down activity menus 2108 and2109 are provided within screen 2100 and are adapted to provide variedfunctions. For example, in menu 2108, an option select SIS is providedfor selecting an offered social interaction service that may be providedby a third party and configuring the selected service for use. Oneexample of an SIS might be a identity creation service for creatingidentities for the client in IML. A next option down in menu 2108provides a service for finding SIML content in a server. The next optiondown enables SIML content to be found according to ID used as searchcriteria. Options Get Series and Mark Series are self-descriptive. Getseries is a download function similar to the interactive button D-Loadin window 2101. Mark series enables a client to mark a sampled orun-sampled series for later download adding the identified series to adownload list or to a sampling list.

A next option down in menu 2108 is a Scheduled down load option forscheduling a series download or sampling at some later time. A browse byoption is provided within menu 2108 and enables a client to browse SIMLpostings by a variety of criteria such as identity, group ID, subjectlikeness, media type, music genre, author (music), album title or movietitle (music, movies) and so on. The option Request Help takes a user toone or more interactive help options like live chat with an agent; afaq; service provider technical pages; or interactive trouble shootingwizards.

Menu 2109 includes an option New NNTP for switching to, or configuringanother news server or servers to browse or download content from. Anext option down includes the former functionality for P2P servers. Anext option down enables a client to view status for posting or fordownloading. The last three options are provided and configure forlaunching other applications like IM, Voice, or email.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the functions andarrangements of work areas in screen 2100 may vary in relation to methodof integration of applications without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention. As well, some functions may beduplicated in different areas for user convenience without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention.

In one embodiment, screen 2100 can support functions of posting, readingand collection by managing workspace within the screen interface. Inanother embodiment separate screen are invoked when toggling fromposting, for example, to binary collection and so on. There are manypossibilities.

It will also be apparent to one with skill in the art that, SIMLposting, collection and reading is not limited to NNTP as a transport.Posting and collecting can be practiced over HTTP with reference to P2Pservers, FTP servers, message boards, auction sites, and other suchvenues without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Third-party services may be developed that, by proxy, connecta client to servers hosting SIML content wherein the client may use aversion of application 2100, or application 1800 to post content andbrowse, find and disseminate posted content in an identity-centricrather than in an application-centric manner. The example of NNTP binaryposting and collecting should not be considered as a limitation of thepresent invention to any single transport protocol.

FIG. 22 is simple architectural overview 2200 illustrating a clientpracticing binary digital collection according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Overview 2200 illustrates a WAN network and connectedequipment, the network represented in this example by a WAN backbone2204. Network 2204 may, in one embodiment, be the well-known Internetnetwork, an Intranet network, or some other WAN or sub-network havingconnection to a larger WAN network.

A plurality of network servers, referenced herein as an NNTP server2209, an FTP server 2210, and a P2P server 2211, is illustrated ashaving connection to network 2204. A SIS service provider 2201 isillustrated in this example and also has connection to network 2204. AnSIS server 2208 is illustrated within service provider 2201. A networkclient 2212 is illustrated in this example and has connection to network2204. Further client 2212 is running some application that may haverelation to P2P server 2211 such as a file sharing folder whereby binarycontent is made available for sharing over a P2P network, the filesreferenced within P2P server 2211.

A client 2202 is illustrated herein as having connection to network 2204and is illustrated as having an instance of a reader/binary collectingapplication 2203 installed and running on the client's PC. Application2203 is analogous in some embodiments to application interface 2100described above. Typically client 2202 has a connecteddirect-access-storage (DAS) C-Drive system 2205 available for normalcomputing. DAS C-drive 2205 may be assumed to be an internal storage,but may be external in some cases.

Using application 2203, client 2202 may access network 2204 and interactwith servers 2209, 2210, 2211, and/or with client 2212 either directly,or through a proxy provided by SIS service provider 2201, which isanalogous to host 1412 described further above.

In one application, client 2202 accesses provider 2201 and launches arequest to find SIML content describing binary files that exist in NNTPserver 2209. Using input from client 2202, SIS server 2208 may accessserver 2209 using standard protocols and search the contents of server2209 for any SIML content fitting the client search criteria input atthe request. Using the collector or collecting mode of application 2203,client 2202 may sample and/or download binary content identified by SISserver 2208. Server 2208 may fist access any BSIs that fit the clientsinput criteria and return a list of those to the client machine. Client2202 may then sample through the list and may mark any interestingseries for download.

At the point of download, the collector function takes the BSIs of theseries being downloaded and creates an index described in XML using adedicated space (2206,2207) partitioned from DAS 2205. The collectoralso partitions, in a preferred embodiment, a collection storage space2207 for storing the user's binaries. Clusters within space 2207coincide with BSI index 2206 so that any binary series stored in space2207 maps by address to an appropriate BSI of index 2206. Space 2207 maybe made up of one or more user zones each containing at least an inbox,an outbox, and folders that may be specific to subject matter, groupidentity, client identity, and so on. In this example, when a clientretrieves a series from an NNTP newsgroup or other configurable sourceeither directly, or through SIS provided 2201, the binary filescomprising the series are stored by the collector component and mappeddirectly to the appropriate BSI, previously downloaded and stored inindex xml space 2206, perhaps during sampling.

The BSI is used to organize the series and series elements. The memoryaddress locations of the stored files, which were not part of theoriginal BSI as retrieved from the network are added to the BSIreplacing the previous mapping schema for the posted files. Thedownloaded binaries are in one embodiment stored in the same messageformat (if NNTP) that they were posted to enable efficient reposting. Inanother embodiment, the file segments of series elements are assembledin storage to form each complete binary file but the BSI retains memoryof the posting format.

In one embodiment of the present invention a format very similar to aBSI is used to describe content location an attributes of media that maybe available for download through a media download service. In this caseP2P server 2211 represents a third-party service that links clients 2212and 2202 together for music sharing. Client 2212 may be enhanced withSIML software that may be used to generate and send an MML descriptionof one or more songs, for example, that are available within theclient's share folder for access. If client 2202 is seeking music fromthe service operating P2P server 2211, then application 2203 may be usedto connect to server 2211 and look for audio files associated with SIMLdescription files.

In the above case, P2P server 2211 may not recognize SIML descriptionassociated with an audio reference to a song listed as accessible in anumber of client share folders. However, collector 2203 can find theSIML content and can get rich description of the offering including aquality sampling or snippet, perhaps, before downloading the song.Client 2212 would have a version of client software (Poster) that isSIML-capable and could choose to advertise his or her shareablecollection using rich MML and IML description. In this way a musicsharing group may loosely form in the P2P network that may share musicof a certain genre or quality.

SIML may also be practiced in conjunction with the file transportprotocol (FTP) standard. In this case the mechanism is the same asdescribed above in that a reader or collector may be used to browse theFTP server for stored SIML content. A structure similar to the BSIconstruct may be used to organize the SIML content and map to the actualdownloadable media provided in the server. Collaborators using FTP aspart of their workflow may use SIML to structure content for upload toFTP server 2210, for example, and may provide rich description ofcontent and may provide thumbnail, audio, and text sampling of content.For example, an SIML-enhanced document stored in FTP server 2210 may besummarized into a paragraph or two of the most important points coveredin the document. An SIML enhanced reader may download the summary andthe client may view the summary before deciding to download thedocument. In case of a series of documents, the client may, by samplingthe summary SIML, decide if he or she may retrieve some but notnecessarily all of the material.

In one embodiment of the present invention, service host 2201 mayprovide an SIML content search service that is much more robust thanwould be possible of a single client machine. Using a powerful server,(2208), host 2201 may search many servers simultaneously for SIMLcontent on behalf of client 2202 and according to criteria input by theclient. In one embodiment, server 2208 may use conventional searchdatabase building techniques similar to other search service providerswhere SIML-based content from all over the Internet may be located,identified, and referenced. In all cases, SIML sampling, groupidentification, subject identification, identity provision, andinstructions for participation (in case of social interaction group) maybe accessible to any client with an SIML-enhanced reader.

One with skill in the art of software that may read and generate XMLwill appreciate that any XML-based reader can identify XML contentthough the content defines SIML. Users who stumble across SIML contentmay be offered an option to participate by accepting a simple downloadedplug-in that enable the client to post and disseminate content incooperation with other SIML users.

FIG. 23 is a relationship diagram 2300 illustrating relationshipsbetween social interaction markup language components exemplified in aposting example according to an embodiment of the present invention.Diagram 2300 is similar in much respect to diagram 300 described withreference to FIG. 3 of Ser. No. 10/765,338 except for the collectionmodule portion, which is replaced in this example with an SIML NNTPposting component 2301 that exemplifies the relationship between SIP andIOM zone and inbox structure and its relevancy to identity orientedmanagement.

SIML component 2301 can be another type of SIML example other than abinary posting example over NNTP without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention. For example, an SIML P2P collectionexample, or an SIML email collaboration example may be representedinstead as a possible component of IOM. The inventor illustrates an NNTPexample as just one possible application that may be integrated with IOMzone architecture and which may be hosted by zone hosting services.

SIML component 2301 describes the functions of publish/series andrequest/repost as SIML capabilities over NNTP where both functionsgenerate a post. Publish/Series encompasses organizing a series ofbinary files to be published as an NNTP post. Request/Repost is a postedmessage that asks a poster to repost a binary series that may have beenpreviously posted but is currently unavailable or a request for postinga certain number of binaries that are known to exist but were notimmediately available to the requester at the time of the request. Inthis case, both actions result in a Post, which can be described as oneor a thread or series of related messages.

Publish/Series has a BSI, which is an extension of MML. Each binary filesegment that makes up a binary file of a Post may have a BFI (anextension of BSI), although none is required.

Post has a “from” identity (user, author) and a contact identity, whichmay be a server/group identity listed as a contact in a directory. Thegroup identity may be that of a social interaction group using SIML tocommunicate. Similarly, a message or messages making up a Post may, inone embodiment, also list the contact and user identities. In anotherembodiment all identities are referenced in the BSI but not necessarilyin each message because each message has a message identity and can beassociated by the BSI with the appropriate identities.

In one embodiment, messages comprising one or more posts using SIML maybe posted to an NNTP server then collected to IOM inbox shared by asocial interaction group described using SGDL. In this case, the inboxmay be hosted by a third-party service that monitors the postingactivity and wherein each group member may access the inbox from anySIML-enabled machine and view content addressed to him or her. Inanother embodiment, individuals download messages into own inboxes butthe messages downloaded are those posted by others of an SGDL-definedgroup, the individuals also members of the group. In this case the groupmay be a loosely defined, un-mediated social interaction group operatingover Usenet.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that SIML can beintegrated wholly with an IOM zone architecture without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present invention. Moreover IOM zonearchitecture provides a useful environment for SIML messaging whereinidentities can be a primary factor in finding and disseminating contentin a fashion that enables content and activity segregation, workflowmanagement, and enhanced work efficiency related to task performance.For example, the ability to sample content to learn appropriateness,relevancy, and criticality of offered content before actually taking anyof the content reduces much effort in binary collection and messagedownload or acceptance in general.

In one embodiment, SIML may be integrated with any presence protocolwherein in addition to content and message sampling, parallelcommunication channels may be opened to further enhance communicationbetween authors and collectors in a publish and subscribe environment,or between collaborators working on a project via simple messagingprotocols. There are many possible applications, some of which werealready described.

FIG. 24 is a process flow chart 2400 illustrating a process for postinga binary series according to an embodiment of the present invention. Atstep 2401 a client opens a poster application analogous to interface1800 of FIG. 18A. At step 2402, working within the application, theclient initiates or begins a task for posting a series. This action may,in one embodiment, bring up a window for dragging and dropping binariesinto a posting assembly workspace. In another embodiment, the user maysimply identify the path of each file to be published by typing the pathin or by browsing to the file location and mapping the location.

At step 2403, the client inputs binary files that will make up theseries for posting. A client may, at this time select the posting orderof the series elements, name or re-name elements and so on. At step2404, the client may select identities for posting. This step mayinclude confirming a default posting destination and author identity ora client may select or configure a new destination identity and authoridentity. Identities include servers, newsgroups, and author identities.Also in this step, a posting type of single post or cross-post may beselected.

At step 2405 a client selects the posting style and schedule forposting. The style attributes are partially deduced automatically byvirtue of the inserted binary file attributes, which are automaticallydetected. Encoding may be set to a default and may just require aconfirmation. Formatting for message size (lines per message) may alsobe automatically configured automatically. At this step a client mayalso elect BSI and BFI posting options. By default a BSI is alwaysgenerated with an SIML posting.

At step 2406, the client may input any custom description for alertingreaders of important parts of the series or series elements includingadding any opinions, comments, or other information tidbits that theclient or author wants consumers to have access to before downloadingthe series such as the classification reference further above. Suchinformation may be directed for embedding into the BSI once generated orinto BFIs of binary files if desired. A text entry window and anassociation function to the whole series (BSI) or series elements (BFI)may be provided so that text entry may be properly associated with theseries or individual series elements. The software may use provide XMLfields to contain the BSI or BFI comments input manually. Most of theseries and element descriptions, however are automatically generatedwhere the information is pre-known by the system such as file size,pixel count, image size, resolution, file name, genre, date originated,state of post (original or repost) and so on.

In one embodiment, a user may create standard or generic comments usingmacros and apply such comments using a keystroke technique. An exampleof one such comment may be “This picture really rocks” or “I recommendselecting these photos for sampling”. The macros may be applied by firsthighlighting the elements in the series workspace to which they willapply and then performing the appropriate keystroke. For manual entrycomments that are relevant to the series or to an element of the series,the client may highlight an element then select an option “add comments”to apply the comment to the series or element description.

At step 2407, the client initiates the task builder component, whichgenerates the information about the series and the user systeminformation into the required XML documents for posting. An icon such as“Post” may be activated for this purpose. The task builder provides theseries information document and the user system information document,both of which combined provide all of the required information to postthe series.

At step 2408, the application connects to the server or server list forposting the series. Step 2408 may occur simultaneously with step 2407 inone embodiment. In another embodiment, a user may already be connectedto the appropriate server or to a jumping off point (intermediaryserver) and step 2408 may not be required in the specific orderillustrated.

At step 2409, a task manager/dispatcher generates the messages forposting including the BSI and BFIs if ordered, and breaks the files intothe appropriate size and order for posting as messages (news server).All of the instructions for posting are executed in this step. At step2409, the task manager may also start a status file and a history fileexpressed in XML for the purpose of providing real-time status displayedin a client interface and logging the posting result historyrespectively. At step 2410, the post is published (sent) to theappropriate destination server(s). The server response and activitystatus is reported back to the client through the connection at step2411 in real time as the task is on-going. Also in step 2412, thehistory of the posting results is being logged and is available to theclient if the client desires to view it.

It will be apparent to one with skill in he art that the exact order andcontent of the steps described in process 2400 may vary according toembodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. For example in one embodiment, a client may elect not to addcomments at step 2406. In another embodiment, a user may accept defaultselections instead of inputting or selecting identities or styleattributes.

In one embodiment, the BSI and BFI data are the first files that aconsumer receives before actually downloading any content. These filesprovide information that is separate from the messages containing actualbinary payloads and may be sampled and rejected without retrieving anybinary file data. Likewise, the BSI may be saved without retrievingbinary data and can be used by a consumer to later retrieve theassociated binary data even if a user as logged off of a server in theinterim. In another embodiment, the BSIs may be downloaded with thebinary files if no sampling is desired before download.

The BSI may be provided in the form of an interactive link in additionto providing the series description such that when the link isactivated, the file provides the instruction to the navigation componentfor re-linking to the series and starting the download. This may beperformed in a similar manner as clicking on a history HTML to connecton-line and link back to that page in the server.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, BSIs are searchableand can be found using conventional keyword search criteria to obtainBSIs relating to such as subject matter, author, genre, posting date,series element count, media type, and other criteria. The onlyrequirement is that the search criteria is either found in the BSI orassociated to the BSI by a third party. BSIs are in a preferredembodiment, searchable from the servers they reside in directly, or aresearchable from a separate server compiled by a search provider usingknown techniques. There are many possibilities.

The method of posting described in process 2400 is that of posting abinary series to a news server or servers. That however should not beconstrued as a limitation in the practice of the present invention.Similar processes as process 2400 varying somewhat in step descriptionand order may be provided for posting information to message boards,auction sites, FTP servers, P2P services, and other venues.

In accordance with the many and varied embodiments described in thisspecification, the methods and apparatus of the claimed invention shouldbe afforded the broadest interpretation. The methods and apparatus ofthe invention should be limited only by the following claims.

1. A system comprising: one or more computer processors; one or more memories coupled to the computer processors; and instructions executable by the one or more computer processors from a non-transitory machine-readable medium, the instructions configured to prepare and send a message by: receiving a selection, from a user, of a communication application from a plurality of communication applications executable by the one or more computer processors; receiving selected or authored social interaction content from the user, the content coded in a Social Interaction Language comprising discrete components coded each in a markup language, including a first component enabling the user to limit the message to a specific set of interactors forming a social interaction group, and a second component imposing a social interaction protocol (SIP) for interaction, the SIP providing rules that identify metadata description of specific protocols allowed for messaging within the group, rules of engagement between interactors of the group, and instruction sets for individual ones of message posting, media handling, and interfacing with existing message handling and transport protocols; embedding the selected or authored social interaction content in a message prepared in the selected communication application; and transmitting the message with the embedded social interaction content over a network compatible with the communication application; and wherein the instructions further comprise instructions configured to cause the one or more computer processors to receive and manage a message by: receiving an incoming message transmitted over connected network by a communication application among a plurality of communication applications executable on the one or more computer processors, the incoming message including embedded content in the social interaction language; and managing interaction with the incoming message according to the first and second components of the social interaction language.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the message sent further comprises consumable information, and the managing interaction with incoming messages comprises retrieval and use of the consumable information.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein consumable information is identified as associated with specific subject matter, and the managing interaction with incoming messages discriminates according to the specific subject matter association in retrieving, storing and using the consumable information.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein the specific subject matter association is one or more of work, community, business, family, literature, travel, sports, faith, music, political, or pets.
 5. The system of claim 2 wherein consumable information is identified as associated with identity of interactors, and the managing interaction with incoming messages discriminates according to the association with interactor identity in retrieving, storing and using the consumable information.
 6. The system of claim 2 wherein the managing interaction with incoming messages comprises a network newsreader having a collector component.
 7. The system of claim 2 wherein the consumable information comprises one or more of photographs, video files, audio files, or text documents.
 8. The system of claim 2 wherein the consumable information is published via one or more network transport protocols including but not limited to network-news transport protocol (NNTP), file transport protocol (FTP), really simple syndication (RSS), universal discovery description and integration (UDDI), lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP), multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME), post office protocol (POP), simple mail transport protocol (SMTP), Internet mail access protocol (IMAP), session initiation protocol (SIP), text messaging services (TMS), and hypertext transport protocol (HTTP).
 9. The system of claim 2 wherein the managing interaction with incoming messages limits consumption of consumable information to specific interactors.
 10. The system of claim 1 wherein messages transmitted and received are processed at least in part by an intermediary network-connected server through which messages pass. 